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5 



A LETTER 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 

I 

Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford. 

BEING 

A VINDICATION 

OF THE 

TENETS AND CHARACTER OF WESLEY AN METHODISTS, 

AGAINST HIS 

MISREPRESENTATIONS AND CENSURES, 



BY THOMAS JACKSON, D. D. 
t • 



There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel 
of Christ.— St. Paul. 



NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY G. LANE <k P. P. SANDFORD, 

FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, AT THE CONFERENCE 

OFFICE, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. 

James Collord, Printer. 
1843. 



In E 

Duke University 

JU! - I 2 1933 






^ 



A LETTER 



REV. EDWARD B. P U S E Y, D. D. 



Rev. Sir, — Occupying as you do an office 
of high distinction in one of the first universi- 
ties in the world, and having acquired no com- 
mon celebrity as one of the principal leaders 
of a great ecclesiastical movement, it will per- 
haps excite your surprise to be thus publicly ad- 
dressed by a plain Methodist preacher. Should 
any one blame me for engaging in a public 
controversy which you have been the first to 
excite, I can only say, " Is there not a cause ?" 
In the third edition of your " Letter to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury" you have seen it good to 
assail, in no measured terms of censure, the 
tenets and character of the Wesleyan body; 
and it is in defence of my brethren and of my- 
self that I appear as your opponent. Great as 
is the disparity between us, I venture to " with- 
stand you to the face ;" because I conceive you 
are " to be blamed" for statements which are 



4 A LETTER TO 

at variance, with truth, and for aspersions, both 
harsh and severe, which, not being founded on 
fact, are unjust and calumnious. On these sub- 
jects I shall take the liberty, which is given to 
me both by the laws of Christ and of my coun- 
try, of addressing you with all freedom and un- 
reserve ; certainly without flattery, and I hope 
without any approach to unchristian rudeness. 
If there is " a time to keep silence," there is 
also " a time to speak." The New Testament 
Scriptures, which enjoin upon the disciples of 
the Lord Jesus the exercise of meekness under 
reproach, contain the command, " Let not your 
good be evil spoken of." Our blessed Saviour 
defended himself under false accusation ; and 
St. Paul followed his example, when the cause 
of evangelical truth and righteousness was like- 
ly to be injured by his silence. 

The following is that part of your publication 
upon which I feel it my duty to offer some an- 
imadversions : — 

" Meaning of the title heresy as applied to Wes- 
ley anism. 

"Having been informed, that some have been 
offended by my having said l that Wesleyanism 
is degenerating- into developed heresy,' and 
bpen requested to explain my meaning, it seems 



REV. EDWARD 13. PUSEV, D. D. 5 

right to do it, although the statement was made 
too incidentally to justify in the first instance 
an explanation, which would have been only a 
prolonged censure. I may say, then, at once, 
that the conviction on my mind was, that the 
result of the present movement in the Wesleyan 
body would be, that the better part would, 
sooner or later, return to the Church, the re- 
mainder were in the course of l degenerating into 
developed heresy.' The root of that heresy 
consists in the way in which the doctrine of 
justification is held, being in fact, and practically , 
a ' justification by feelings.' ' Believe (not ' in 
Christ' but) that you will be saved, and you will 
be saved,' was early a Wesleyan doctrine ; but 
its character was long held in check, partly by 
the Church system, in which those who adopt- 
ed it had been educated, partly by the con- 
tinued use of the sacraments of the Church. 
In the section of the Wesleyan body which is 
becoming more alienated from the Church, and 
ceases to communicate with it, the original 
error has been more fatally developing itself. 
They who go over to it, are taught to look for 
1 present salvation,' that is, a sensible assurance 
of salvation, such as is vouchsafed often to God's 
servants on their dying beds, probably but rare- 
ly until the close of life, and still less at the 



A LETTER TO 

first conversion of a sinner. What (if true) 
would be a direct revelation from almighty 
God, persons are taught indiscriminately to ex- 
pect, as the infallible accompaniment and test 
of a sincere conversion ; so that they may not 
hope that they are really converted, or will be 
saved, unless they obtain it ; what God, when 
he is pleased to vouchsafe it, ordinarily bestows 
as the reward at the end, the Wesleyan is taught 
to look for at the outset, as the very condition 
of his ultimate salvation, and as securing it. 
Practically he is taught to hold his salvation to 
be assured, as soon as he has obtained this 
first persuasion. The persuasion that a person 
will be saved is made the condition, and, virtu- 
ally, the only condition, of his salvation. Ks 
long as he believes he is saved, so long, accord- 
ing to them, he is so. The workings of repent- 
ance and penitence are thus suddenly checke.d 
in the convert, as being thought to be attained. 
It is with them made an object to check the 
strong emotions of compunction which God has 
raised in the sinner. To feel * the burden of 
our sins to be intolerable' is accounted want of 
faith.* The mind is worked up until it lose its 

* " The following, which has been furnished me out of a 
very popular Wesleyan book, 'The Life of Carvosso,' a class- 
leader, may serve as an illustration of what is taking place 



REV. EDWARD D. PUSEV, D. D. 7 

fear, and gain what it thinks an assurance of 
salvation. In other words, permanent repent- 
ance, and anxiety and grief for sin, are account- 
ed contrary to the gospel. The penitence of 
the Psalms, or that praised by St. Paul, — ' Be- 
hold this self-same thing, that you sorrowed 
after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought 
in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, 
what indignation, yea, what year, yea, what ve- 
hement desire, yea, what revenge ! In all things 
ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this 
matter,' — has no place in this system, except 
to be effaced. Then, the first persuasion hav- 
ing been obtained by the feelings, these thence- 
forth — not ' good works which are the fruits of 

daily. The writer knows of similar cases, where the ultimate 
effect (as was to be expected) was very injurious. 'I found 
a poor heavy-laden penitent. I laboured to encourage her ; 
but such were her strong crying and tears, that I thought best 
to pray with her. Her mind apparently becoming a little 
more composed, I asked her how she felt ? She said, / see I 
must go home and pray more. Aware that this was a snare of 
Satan's, [!] I replied, There is no necessity for that: the Lord 
is here, and is now ivaiting to bless you. There is nothing want- 
ing but for you to believe in Jesus as your Saviour. And if he 
died for you, ought you not at once to believe in him, and to love 
him ? The light of faith soon appeared, and her soul found 
liberty through the blood of the Lamb. Full of the assurance 
of faith, she cried out, Now I know my sins are forgiven.'' Be- 
lief in Christ, and belief in the individual's assured personal 
salvation, are represented as equivalent." 



A LETTER TO 



faith,' Art. xii — are prominent in the mind of 
the Wesleyan as the ' fruits of the Spirit,' and 
the test of a ' lively faith.' Confession, with 
him, is not a sorrowful acknowledgment of sins, 
but a recounting of the high feelings, inspired 
(as he thinks) by God within him ; ' expe- 
riences' are not the result of i patience,' which 
\ the trial of faith worketh,' not the victory won 
by Christ's strength in our weakness, but what, 
if real, would be revelations of God's love ; 
' the means of grace' are, with him, not the sa- 
craments, but the ' class-meeting, bands, love- 
feasts.' The writer has known such a meet- 
ing preferred by a body of Wesleyan s to the 
holy communion, where this could not have 
been celebrated for nearly a year in a language 
which they understood, and there was no pros- 
pect of its being again for some time adminis- 
tered. ' We relate the state of our feelings,' 
was the uniform answer to his inquiry as to the 
subject of their class-meetings. It is too cer- 
tain that in this way much dangerous self-de- 
ceit and unconscious hypocrisy has been fos- 
tered, people being led to work themselves up 
to imagine that they had feelings, equal in spi- 
rituality, or yet more spiritual than those of their 
neighbours, or inventing them when they could 
not. And this, unhappily, is almost essential 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. \) 

to this system. Self-deceit must come in, 
whenever the feelings are directly acted upon. 
People have, for a time at least, the power of 
exciting their own feelings, of making them- 
selves for the time feel what they habitually do 
not. And this, with the Wesleyan, is the test 
of his faith. If he loses these feelings, his 
faith is for the time supposed to be lost ; if he 
regain them, it is restored, and he is again in a 
perfect state of justification and acceptance as 
before. But such a state, as being mostly arti- 
ficial, must be unreal. Yet further, by substi- 
tuting another test of acceptance, it even takes 
people off from considering their practical du- 
ties toward God and man, and how they per- 
form these, which our Lord gives us as the test 
of our love for him — ' If ye love me, keep my 
commandments.' Instead of this, it sets them 
watching for certain feelings only, which, un- 
happily, man has it in his power, in a great de- 
gree, to produce in himself, without their being 
any criterion of his habitual state, or perma- 
nently influencing it, — except for evil, in drug- 
ging the conscience. There will, of course, 
be everywhere individuals better than their 
system ; it is not, therefore, judging individuals, 
to say, that the Wesleyan standard of morals 
and holiness is, of necessity, low. The state 



10 A LETTER TO 

of their feelings, not God's commandments, is 
the standard whereby they try themselves. 
Hence it has been observed, how very eminent 
among them have been individuals, known, in 
no ordinary degree, to be ambitious and world- 
ly. One need but refer to the case of the in- 
dividual to whom Wesley deputed the organiza- 
tion of their missions. He was known to be 
ambitious, affecting high titles of honour, to 
which he had no claim ; was consecrated to the 
episcopal office, and took its highest spiritual 
titles ; since his death it has been discovered, 
that he made application for a bishopric in the 
Church, being ready on such terms to abandon 
his Wesleyanism. All this is known, yet he 
is not disowned, but held in high repute as be- 
fore. In more private cases, persons, of no very 
strict lives, have been able to profess that they 
have been without a sinful thought for weeks 
together, others, for even twenty years. Again : 
persons, esteemed sober-minded among them, 
have held, 'that by one act of faith a person 
may become perfectly sanctified ; and that it is 
the privilege of believers, whenever they choose, 
to claim it.' These things are not said as any 
reflection on the body, but as pointing out the 
germ whence a heretical system is springing, 
which threatens to be more desolating, because 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 11 

more delusive, than an open Antinomianism. 
For all these things follow from the first prin- 
ciple, that the feelings, or the persuasion that a 
man is saved, are the test of his faith. He has 
no need then to examine himself, except as to 
this one point ; he may take it for granted that 
he is obedient, humble, meek, has all ' the fruits 
of the Spirit.' Since, then, life is a daily strug- 
gle against the powers of evil, since watchful- 
ness is enjoined as essential, since habitual 
self-denial and bearing the cross is a test of 
our Lord's true disciples, how must such a sys- 
tem, in the end, be a delusion ? 

" Wesleyanism, then, was said to be ' dege- 
nerating into a developed heresy,' in that it sub- 
stitutes for the catholic teaching, a doctrine 
of justification for which there is ' no warrant 
in the word of God,' involving the principle of 
Antinomianism, and, in many cases, practically 
leading into it, effacing the doctrine of repent- 
ance, and the real character of good works, and 
virtually superseding the sacraments. Painful 
as it is to say it, on account of the many good 
men, doubtless, still entangled in it, it ' preaches 
another gospel from that which has been de- 
livered unto us,' substituting practically the 
feelings and experiences for repentance, good 
works, and the sacraments." — Letter to the 



12 A LETTER TO 

Archbishop of Canterbury, pp. 159-163. Third 
edition. 

Let us analyze the several allegations which 
you have here made, and thus endeavour to 
ascertain whether the tenets and character of 
the Wesleyan societies generally are what you 
describe, or whether you have been led by 
your prejudices to publish statements which 
are not true, to the injury of an unoffending 
people. To an impartial reader your whole 
account must appear very suspicious, in this 
view, — that while you express the strongest 
condemnation of what you are pleased to call 
" Wesleyanism," you make no reference to the 
acknowledged writings of its founder. It is 
well known that he has written largely on all 
the subjects which you have here mooted, and 
his Works are accessible to all who choose to 
read them ; yet have you carefully abstained 
from quoting a single word that he ever uttered. 
You have not made even an allusion to any 
authentic publication where he has imbodied 
his sentiments ; but have ascribed to him and 
his people just what tenets you pleased, and 
then, on the authority of your own assertions, 
and of idle tales which no candid man can by 
possibility believe, charged them with the An- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D 13 

tinomian heresy in its worst forms. Such a 
course, to say the least, is sufficient to awaken 
an apprehension that all is not fair and honest. 
If " Wesleyanism" is in itself so essentially er- 
roneous, and immoral in its tendency, why are 
its recognised formularies concealed ? and why 
does a declared adversary take upon himself to 
be the sole expounder of its doctrines ? The 
fact is, as you well know, that John Wesley, 
declaring his own views of religion, is a very 
different person from Dr. Pusey telling the 
world, in a party pamphlet, what John Wesley 
believed and taught. The founder of the Wes- 
leyan societies expresses himself with all pos- 
sible clearness and simplicity, as if he was 
wishful to be understood : his interpreter, what- 
ever might be his design, darkens and misre- 
presents every subject that he professes to ex- 
plain. We will descend to particulars. 

JUSTIFICATION. 

Oxe of the most momentous doctrines in the 
entire compass of Christian theology, unques- 
tionably, is that of a sinner's justification before 
God. This is the principal subject of St. 
Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and in that to 
the Galatians. All the Protestant reformers 
laid the utmost stress upon it, as is manifest 



14 A LETTER TO 

from their writings, and from the confessions of 
faith drawn up by them for the several churches 
with which they were connected. This is also 
well known to have been a leading subject in 
the ministry of the Wesleys, and of their fel- 
low-labourers in the gospel. You affirm that 
*j Wesleyanism substitutes for the catholic 
teaching a doctrine of justification for which 
there is no warrant in the word of God." On 
one of the most vital points of Christian divinity, 
you affirm that the Wesleyan tenets are not 
only unscriptural, but at variance with the 
" teaching" of the universal church of Christ. 
This is a fearful charge ; and if it could be 
substantiated, would go far to accomplish an 
object which you appear to have very much at 
heart, — the extinction of Wesleyan Methodism 
throughout the world. What then is the Wes- 
leyan doctrine concerning this great question ? 
You affirm, that it i& " practically a justification 
by feelings." You add, " c Believe (not in 
Christ, but) that you will be saved, and you 
will be'saved,' was early a Wesleyan doctrine ;" 
and then, with regard to what you call " a sec- 
tion of the Wesleyan body," you add, " The 
original error has been more fatally developing 
itself." If this statement were true, there 
would, indeed, be " no warrant in the word o^ 



REV. EDWARD P. PUSEY, D. D. 15 

God" for the Wesleyan doctrine of justifica- 
tion ; and those who " practically" adhere to it 
would be more fit for an asylum or a penal set- 
tlement, than for a place either in the great 
Christian family, or even in civilized life. But, 
unhappily for you, the statement which you 
have put forth is an absolute fiction. On this 
subject I claim to speak with some confidence, 
having been connected with the Wesleyan 
body for nearly half a century, and conversed 
on this very point with thousands of its mem- 
bers in various parts of the kingdom ; having 
also carefully read every theological book and 
pamphlet that Mr. Wesley ever wrote, as well 
as the writings of the principal ministers and 
laymen who have at any period been connect- 
ed with his societies ; and, in direct opposition 
to your declaration, I solemnly aver, that I 
never met with the doctrine that you have pro- 
pounded, till I saw it in your pamphlet. I 
never heard it uttered by either man, woman, 
or child ; nor do I believe, that there ever was 
in the Wesleyan connection a single person 
that seriously held it. I have, indeed, heard of 
a few dreaming religionists, not holding the 
Wesleyan tenets, who have said, " Believe 
that you are justified, and you are justified ;" 
but that " Wesleyanism" ever taught, " Believe 



16 A LETTER TO 

(not in Christ, but) that you will be saved, and 
you will be saved," I indignantly deny. With 
your motives in charging upon the Wesleyan 
body a tenet which the wildest ranter would be 
ashamed to avow, I have no concern. I state 
the fact, and leave motives to Him that judgeth 
righteously. 

For the information of candid persons, who 
are willing to hear the truth, I will here give, in 
an authentic form, the genuine doctrine of 
" Wesleyanism" on the point in question, that 
they may judge whether or not you are a faith- 
ful witness in the case. With respect to the 
nature of justification, Mr. Wesley says, — 

" It sometimes means our acquittal at the last 
day. Matt, xii, 37. But this is altogether out 
of the present question ; that justification 
whereof our Articles and Homilies speak, 
meaning present forgiveness, pardoa of sins, 
and, consequently, acceptance with God ; who 
therein ' declares his righteousness for the re- 
mission of the sins that are past ; saying, I 
will be merciful to thy unrighteousnes, and 
thine iniquities I will remember no more,' Rom. 
iii, 25 ; Heb. viii, 12. 

" I believe the condition of this is faith : 
(Rom. iv, 5, &c. :) I mean, not only, frhat with- 
out faith we cannot be justified ; but also, that 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 17 

as soon as any one has true faith, in that mo- 
ment he is justified. 

" Good works follow this faith, but cannot go 
before it; (Luke vi, 43 ;) much less can sancti- 
fication, which implies a continued course of 
good works, springing from holiness of heart. 
But it is allowed that entire sanctification goes 
before our justification at the last day. Heb. 
xii, 14. 

" It is allowed also, that repentance, and 
1 fruits meet for repentance,' go before faith. 
Mark i, 15 ; Matt, iii, 8. Repentance must 
absolutely go before faith ; fruits meet for it, if 
there be opportunity. By repentance I mean, 
conviction of sin. producing real desires and 
sincere resolutions of amendment ; and by 
k fruits meet for repentance,' forgiving our bro- 
ther ; (Matt, vi, 14, 15;) ceasing from evil, 
doing good; (Luke iii, 4, 9, &c.;) using the 
ordinances of God, and in general obeying hinj 
according to the measure of grace which we 
have received. Matt, vii, 7 ; xxv, 29. But 
these I cannot as yet term good works ; be- 
cause they do not spring from faith and the love 
of God."* 

" What is it to be justified ? What is justifi- 
cation ? It is not to be made actually just and 
Works, vol. v, pp. 34, 35, Am. standard ed. 
2 



18 A LETTER TO 

righteous. This is sanctification ; which is in- 
deed, in some degree, the immediate fruit of 
justification, but, nevertheless, is a distinct gift 
of God, and of a totally different nature. The 
one implies what God does for us by his Son ; 
the other what he works in us by his Spirit. 
So that, although some rare instances may be 
found, wherein the term ' justified' or 4 justifica- 
tion' is used in so wide a sense as to include 
sanctification also ; yet, in general use, they 
are sufficiently distinguished from each other, 
both by St. Paul and the other inspired writers." 
"The plain Scriptural notion of justification 
is pardon, the forgiveness of sins. It is that act 
of God the Father, whereby, for the sake of the 
propitiation made by the blood of his Son, he 
' showeth forth his righteousness by the remis- 
sion of the sins that are past.' This is the easy, 
natural account of it given by St. Paul through- 
out this whole epistle. [That to the Romans.] 
So he explains it himself, more particularly 
in this, and in the following chapter. Thus in 
the next verses but one to the text : ' Blessed 
are they,' saith he, l whose iniquities are for- 
given, and whose sins are covered ; blessed is 
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.' 
To him that is justified, or forgiven, God will 
1 not impute sin' to his condemnation. He will 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 19 

not condemn him on that account, either in this 
world or in that which is to come. His sins, 
all his past sins, in thought, word, and deed, are 
covered, are blotted out, shall not be remember- 
ed or mentioned against him any more than if 
they had not been. God will not inflict on that 
sinner what he deserved to suffer, because the 
Son of his love hath suffered for him. And 
from the time we are 'accepted through the 
Beloved/ ' reconciled to God through his 
blood,' he loves, and blesses, and watches 
over us for good, even as if we had never 
sinned."* 

That the Wesleyan Methodists of the present 
day adhere to these views of the venerated 
founder of their societies, is known to every 
one who attends their ministry, or who is ac- 
quainted with their publications. The follow- 
ing extract from a sermon which was preached 
some years ago before the conference, and 
published at the request of that body, contains 
direct proof of this fact : — 

" To justify a sinner is to account and consi- 
der him relatively righteous, and to deal with 
him as such, notwithstanding his past actual 
unrighteousness ; by clearing, absolving, dis- 
charging, and releasing him from various penal 

* Wesley's Works, vol. i, pp. 46, 47, 48. 



20 A LETTER TO 

evils, and especially from the wrath of God, 
and the liability to eternal death, which, by his 
past unrighteousness, he had deserved; and by 
accepting him as if just, and admitting him to 
the state, the privileges, and the rewards of 
righteousness. 

" Hence it appears, that in our opinion, jus- 
tification and the remission of sin are substan- 
tially the same thing. These expressions, I 
mean to say, relate to one and the same act of 
God, to one and the same privilege of his be- 
lieving people. That which, viewed in one 
aspect, is pardon, viewed in another, is justifi- 
cation. ' The same act,' says that profound 
divine, Mr. John Howe, ' is pardon, being done 
by God as a sovereign ruler, acting above law, 
namely, the law of works, which is justifica- 
tion, being done by him as sustaining the per- 
son of a Judge according to law ; namely, the 
law of grace.' Accordingly St. Paul clearly 
referred to justification and forgiveness as sy- 
nonymous terms, when he said, 'Be it known 
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that 
through this man is preached unto you the for- 
giveness of sins : and by him all that believe 
are justified from all things, from which ye could 
not be justified by the law of Moses,' Acts xiii, 
38, 39. The word 'justified,' in the thirty- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 21 

ninth verse, is exegetical, or explanatory of the 
word ' forgiveness,' in the thirty-eighth. At- 
tend also to the following passage: 'To him 
that worketh not, but belie veth on him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for 
righteousness. Even as David also describeth 
the blessedness of the man unto whom God 
imputeth righteousness without works, saying, 
Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, 
and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the 
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.' 
Rom. iv, 5-8. Here the justification of the 
ungodly, the counting or imputation of right- 
eousness, the forgiveness of iniquity, and the 
covering and non-imputation of sin, are phrases 
which have all perhaps their different shades 
of meaning, but which express the very same 
blessing under different views. Our Saviour 
uses another phrase, which> however, is sub- 
stantially equivalent in its import with those 
which have been already quoted. In his pa- 
rable of the Pharisee and the publican, he puts 
into the mouth of the latter this prayer : ' God 
be merciful to me a sinner.' And what is the 
mercy which a penitent sinner desires from 
God? Is it not redemption through the blood of 
Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins ? Now, that 
mercy, which this publican implored, he actu- 



22 A LETTER TO 

ally found. And his finding mercy, that is, his 
obtaining pardon, is expressly called, his going 
* down to his house justified.' "* 

These quotations may suffice to show the 
true doctrine of " Wesleyanism" concerning 
the justification of a sinner before God. Still 
appealing to the same just and unexceptionable 
authority, let us inquire into the nature of the 
faith by which this great blessing of the evan- 
gelical covenant is obtained. We shall thus 
see whether or not you are a trustworthy wit- 
ness in the case. 

" What faith is it then," says Mr. Wesley, 
" through which we are saved ? It may be 
answered, first, in general, It is a faith in 
Christ : Christ, and God through Christ, are 
the proper objects of it. Herein, therefore, it 
is sufficiently, absolutely distinguished from the 
faith either of ancient or modern heathens. 
And from the faith of a devil it is fully distin- 
guished by this ; it is not barely a speculative, 
rational thing ; a cold, lifeless ascent; a train 
of ideas in the head ; but also a disposition 
of the heart. For thus saith the Scripture, 
' With the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness ;' and, ' If thou shalt confess with thy 
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe with 

*Dr. Bunting's Sermon on Justification by Faith. 



REV. EDWARD D. PUSEV, D. D. 23 

thy heart, that God hath raised him from the 
dead, thou shalt be saved.' 

"And herein does it differ from that faith 
which the apostles themselves had while our 
Lord was on earth, that it acknowleges the 
necessity and merit of his death, and the power 
of his resurrection. It acknowledges his death 
as the only sufficient means of redeeming man 
from death eternal, and his resurrection as the 
restoration of us all to life and immortality ; 
inasmuch as he * was delivered for our sins, 
and rose again for our justification.' Christian 
faith is, then, not only an assent to the whole 
gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the 
blood of Christ ; a trust in the merits of his life, 
death, and resurrection, a recumbency upon him 
as our atonement and our life, as given for us, 
and living in us ; and, in consequence hereof, a 
closing with him and cleaving to him as our 
1 wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and re- 
demption,' or, in one word, our salvation."* 

"Faith in general is a divine, supernatural 
eXeyxog, evidence, or conviction, of ' things not 
seen,' not discoverable by our bodily senses, as 
being either past, future, or spiritual. Justify- 
ing faith implies, not only a divine evidence or 
conviction that ' God was in Christ, reconciling 

• Wesley's Works, vol. i, pp. 14, 15. 



24 A LETTER TO 

the world unto himself ;' -but a sure trust and 
confidence that Christ died for my sins, that he 
loved me, and gave himself for me. And at 
what time soever a sinner thus believes, be it 
in early childhood, in the strength of his years, 
or when he is old and hoary-haired, God jus- 
tifieth that ungodly one : God, for the sake of 
his Son, pardoneth and absolveth him, who had 
in him, till then, no good thing. Repentance, 
indeed, God had given him before ; but that re- 
pentance was neither more nor less than a deep 
sense of the want of all good, and the presence 
of all evil. And whatever good he hath or 
doeth, from that hour, when he first believes in 
God through Christ, faith does not find, but 
bring. This is the fruit of faith. First the 
tree is good, and then the fruit is good also. 

" I cannot describe this faith better than in 
the words of our own Church: ; The only in- 
strument of salvation' (whereof justification is 
one branch) \ is faith ; that is, a sure trust and 
confidence that God both hath and will forgive 
our sins, that he hath accepted us again into 
his favour, for the merits of Christ's death and 
passion. But here we must take heed that we 
do not halt with God, through an inconstant, 
wavering faith. Peter, coming to Christ upon 
the water, because he fainted in faith, was in 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 25 

danger of drowning ; so we, if we begin to 
waver or doubt, it is to be feared that we shall 
sink as Peter did, not into the water, but into the 
bottomless pit of hell fire.' — Second Sermon on 
the Passion. 

" ' Therefore have a sure and constant faith, 
not only that the death of Christ is available 
for all the world, but that he hath made a full 
and sufficient sacrifice for thee, a perfect cleans- 
ing of thy sins ; so that thou mayest say, with 
the apostle, he loved thee, and gave himself for 
thee. For this is to make Christ thine own, 
and to apply his merits unto thyself.' — Ser- 
mon on the Sacrament, First Part."* 

Speaking on the same subject, the author of 
the sermon which has been already quoted, 
says, " Justifying faith has respect, in general, 
to all that Christ is set forth in the gospel as 
doing and suffering, by the gracious appoint- 
ment of the Father, in order to our redemption 
and pardon. But it has respect, in particular, 
to the atoning sacrifice of Christ, as exhibited 
by divine authority in the Scriptures, and as at- 
tested to be acceptable and sufficient by his 
resurrection from the dead, and by his media- 
torial exaltation at the right hand of God. 

" The acts or exercises of this faith seem to 

* Wesley's Works, vol. i, p, 50. 



26 A LETTER TO 

be three ; or, rather, that faith which is required 
in order to our justification is a complex act of 
the mind, which includes three distinct but con- 
current exertions of its powers. It includes, 

" 1. The assent of the understanding to the 
truth of the testimony of God in the gospel; 
and especially to that part of it which concerns 
the design and efficacy of the death of Jesus as 
a sacrifice for sin. 

" 2. The consent of the will and affections to 
this plan of salvation ; such an approbation and 
choice of it, as imply a renunciation of every 
other refuge, and a steady and decided prefer- 
ence of this. Unbelief is called a disallowing 
of the foundation laid in Zion ; whereas faith 
includes a hearty allowance of it, and a thank- 
ful acquiescence in God's revealed method of 
forgiveness. 

" 3. From this assent of the enlightened un- 
derstanding, and consent of the rectified will, 
to the evangelical testimony concerning Christ 
crucified, results the third thing which I sup- 
pose to be implied in justifying faith ; namely, 
actual trust in the Saviour, and personal appre- 
hension of his merits. When, under the pro- 
mised leading and influence of the Holy Ghost, 
the penitent sinner thus confidently relies and 
individually lays hold on Christ, then the work 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 27 

of justifying faith is complete. Then, and not 
till then, he is immediately justified. 

" On the whole, may it not be said, that the 
faith to which the privilege of justification is 
annexed, is such a belief of the gospel, by the 
power of the Spirit of God, as leads us to come 
to Christ, to receive Christ, to trust in Christ, 
and to commit the keeping of our souls into his 
hands, in humble confidence of his ability and 
willingness to save us ? It will readily occur to 
you, that the several expressions which I have 
just used are all employed in Holy Scripture, as 
synonymous with that believing which is unto 
righteousness." John i, 12 ; Matt, xi, 28 ; Eph. 
i, 12; 2 Tim. i, 12.* 

The subject is now before the reader, and 
every one may judge of the question at issue. 
Mr. Wesley declares, in language the most di- 
rect and explicit, that Christ crucified, or God 
in Christ, is the object of justifying faith. On 
this point the people who bear his name have 
not departed a hair's breadth from his views. 
They declare, with one heart and voice, that 
there is no way of justification before God, for 
fallen and guilty men, but that of faith in Christ, 
as the divinely-appointed sacrifice for sin, or in 
God through Christ. In opposition to this, you 

* Dr. Bunting's Sermon on Justification by Faith. 



28 A LETTER TO 

aver, that, in order to justification, they teach 
their hearers to " believe {not in Christ, but) 
that they will be saved," and then assure them 
that salvation will infallibly follow. The be- 
lief that the parties " will be saved," you de- 
scribe as a mere " feeling," and not as either a 
principle or an act. A more palpable misrep- 
resentation was never palmed upon the world. 
You declare the thing that is not. Without ad- 
ducing the slightest proof, and in defiance of 
the most decisive evidence to the contrary, you 
describe a body of Christian people, not only 
as heretics, but as consummate fools, who teach 
mankind to exercise faith without an object. 
According to " Wesleyanism," it seems, men 
are neither justified by faith in God, nor by 
faith in the one Mediator between God and 
man, but by faith in a contingency ! 

This injurious statement is the more inexcu- 
sable, because it is positively contradicted by 
yourself. You have given an extract from the 
Life of William Carvosso, who says, that he 
" found a poor heavy-laden penitent," w T hom 
he "laboured to encourage." " There is no- 
thing wanting," said he, " but for you to believe 
in Jesus as your Saviour. If he died for you, 
ought you not to believe in him, and love him ?" 
She received this advice, and immediately 



REV.. EDWARD B. PUSEY, I). D. 29 

experienced the benefit of it. You add, " Be- 
lief in Christ, and belief in the individual's per- 
sonal salvation, are represented as equivalent." 
If by "equivalent," you mean that they are the 
same thing, you are greatly mistaken. One is 
the cause, the other is the effect. The peni- 
tent sinner believes in Christ, and then " receives 
the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul," 
and " rejoices with joy unspeakable, and full of 
glory," 1 Pet. i, 8, 9. But I adduce the case 
of Carvosso, because of your concluding obser- 
vation. You confess that the honest Cornish- 
man recommended to a broken-hearted penitent, 
" belief in Christ." as the means of obtaining 
forgiveness, and the peace which is consequent 
upon it : a practice which was uniformly 
adopted in all similar cases by the apostles of 
our Lord, as we learn from the inspired record 
of their " Acts." According to your account, 
therefore, the Wesleyans teach people, in or- 
der to their acceptance with God, to " believe in 
Christ" and to " believe not in Christ." Pray, 
sir, what will you say of them next? You are 
neither just to them nor consistent with yourself. 
After what you have said, it will excite no 
man's surprise that you add, " Wesleyanism 
substitutes for the catholic teaching a doctrine 
of justification, for which there is no warrant in 



30 A LETTER TO 

the word of God." If by " Wesleyanism," you 
mean the fiction which you have invented, and 
published under this name, you are right. 
There is, indeed, " no warrant" for it " in the 
word of God ;" nor was it ever held by any 
man of sane mind. But as to the " teaching" 
of Mr. Wesley, and of the people who bear his 
honoured name, the case is very different. 
Their tenets are essentially Scriptural. Ac- 
cording to " the word of God," justification con- 
sists in the " remission of sins that are past :" 
(Acts xiii, 38, 39 ; Rom. iii,, 25 :) it is not ob- 
tained by works of law, but by faith in the 
sacrificial hlood of Christ : (Rom. iii, 28 ; Gal. 
ii, 16 ; Rom. iii, 25 :) it is in no sense the 
reward of human merit, for it is bestowed upon 
" the ungodly," and flows from the mere 
"grace of God:" (Rom. iv, 5; iii, 24:) it is 
conferred in a manner that fully accords with 
the inflexible righteousness of God, and the 
rectitude of his government ; and is therefore 
received through " the redemption that is in 
Christ Jesus," Rom. iii, 24; Gal. iii, 13, 14. 
These texts are but a small sample of the pas- 
sages relating to the same subject with which 
the New Testament abounds, and especially 
the epistles of St. Paul. To transcribe them 
would occupy several pages. Such is the 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 31 

doctrine of " Wesleyanism," and not the tissue 
of absurdities which you are pleased to call by 
that name. When you declare that this doc- 
trine has " no warrant in the word of God," you 
might just as well tell us that the sun never 
shed a ray of light upon the earth from the be- 
ginning of the creation to the present day. It 
agrees with the very letter of Holy Scripture, 
the only rule and standard of sacred theology ; 
nor can it be invalidated by any form of sophis- 
try, where the just authority of God's word is 
acknowledged. 

What you mean when you say, that the 
Wesleyan doctrine of justification is a depart- 
ure from " catholic teaching," I know not. 
There is no authentic " teaching" on this great 
and vital subject, but that which the pen of in- 
spiration supplies ; for God only can declare 
the terms upon which he will show mercy to 
the convicted transgressors of his law. If our 
doctrine accord with the " testimony of God," 
we are perfectly satisfied, although all the world 
should be against us. " Let God be true, and 
every man a liar." It is, however, a fact, that 
the Wesleyan doctrine of justification is in sub- 
stantial agreement with the creed of every 
orthodox Protestant church in Christendom. 
That it is at variance with the doctrine of the 



32 A LETTER TO 

Church of Rome, as represented by the Coun- 
cil of Trent, we are fully aware ; but this is to 
us rather matter of satisfaction than of uneasi- 
ness, convinced as we are that Popery is that 
great corruption of Christianity of which the 
prophetic Scriptures have given awful warning. 
The prelates and cardinals of Trent fulminate 
their bitterest curses against all who hold the 
evangelical doctrine of justification by faith ; 
but, thanks to a merciful Providence, those 
curses are powerless. Their only value is 
that of showing the antichristian character of 
the church which has adopted them, and- from 
which they emanate. 

Our tenets may be distorted and caricatured, 
till they can scarcely be recognised ; neverthe- 
less it remains true, that " we are accounted 
righteous before God, only for the merits of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and 
not for our own works or deservings. Where- 
fore that we are justified by faith only, is a 
most wholesome doctrine, and very full of com- 
fort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily 
of Justification."* It was the study of the Ho- 
milies of the Church of England, in connection 
with the Holy Scriptures, more than any thing 
besides, that led Mr. Wesley to the practical 

* Eleventh Article of the Church of England. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D- 33 

adoption of this great truth of Christianity, 
which became one of the most prominent sub- 
jects of his effective ministry during the last 
fifty years of his life. 

CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 

On this subject you have expressed yourself 
with great freedom ; but whether with truth and 
consistency, remains to be seen. What you 
intend to admit, it is difficult to ascertain; and 
still more difficult to know, from your represent- 
ations, what the Wesley an Methodists really 
teach. Many of the tenets which you have 
charged upon them form no part of their creed, 
and were never held by any of them. The 
accusations which you have preferred against 
them are indeed fearful, and advanced with the 
most perfect confidence, as if they admitted of 
no doubt ; but they are misapplied, and therefore 
reflect no dishonour, except upon the party by 
whom they are advanced. I will take the liberty 
to correct your misstatements, by an authentic 
exhibition of the Wesleyan doctrines, referring 
at the same time to the authority by which they 
are supported ; and will then inquire whether 
the doctrine which you assert really has that 
" warrant in the word of God," of which you 
declare that of the Wesleyans to be destitute. 
3 



34 A LETTER TO 

With respect to the spiritual state of those 
who truly believe in Christ, Mr. Wesley says, 
they are saved " from the guilt of all past sin. 
For whereas all the world is guilty before God, 
insomuch that, should he be extreme to mark 
what is done amiss, there is none that could 
abide it ; and whereas, by the law is only the 
knowledge of sin, but no deliverance from it ; 
so that, by fulfilling the deeds of the law, no flesh 
can be justified in his sight. Now the right- 
eousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus 
Christ, is manifested to all that believe. Now 
they are justified freely by his grace, through 
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Him 
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness 
for (or by) the remission of the sins that are 
past. Now hath Christ taken away the curse 
of the law, being made a curse for us. He hath 
blotted out the hand-writing that was against us, 
taking it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. 
There is, therefore, no condemnation now to 
them which believe in Christ Jesus. 

" And, being saved from guilt, they are saved 
from fear. Not, indeed, from a filial fear of 
offending ; but from all servile fear ; from that 
fear which hath torment ; from fear of punish- 
ment ; from fear of the wrath of God, whom 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 35 

they now no longer regard as a severe Master, 
but as an indulgent Father. They have not re- 
ceived the spirit of bondage, but the Spirit of 
adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father : the 
Spirit itself bearing witness with their spirits, 
that they are the children of God. They are 
also saved from the fear, though not from the 
possibility, of falling away from the grace of 
God, and coming short of the great and pre- 
cious promises. Thus have they peace with 
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. They re- 
joice in hope of the glory of God. And the 
love of God is shed abroad in their hearts, 
through the Holy Ghost which is given unto 
them. And hereby they are persuaded, (though 
perhaps not at all times, nor with the same ful- 
ness of persuasion,) that neither death, nor life, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate them from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

81 Again, through, this faith they are saved 
from the power of sin, as well as from the guilt 
of it. So the apostle declares : ' Ye know that 
he was manifested to take away our sins ; and 
in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him 
sinneth not.' 1 John iii, 5, &c. Again : ' Little 
children, let no man deceive vou. He that 



36 A LETTER TO 

committeth sin is of the devil. Whosoever be- 
lieveth is born of God. And whosoever is born 
of God doth not commit sin, for his seed re- 
maineth in him : and he cannot sin, because 
he is born of God.' Once more: 'We know 
that whosoever is born of God sinneth not : 
but he that is begotten of God keepeth him- 
self, and that wicked one toucheth him not,' 
1 John v, 18. 

" He that is, by faith, born of God, sinneth 
not: (1.) By any habitual sin ; for all habitual 
sin is reigning. Nor, (2.) By any wilful sin ; 
for his will, while he abideth in the faith, is 
utterly set against all sin, and abhorreth it as 
deadly poison. Nor, (3.) By any sinful desire ; 
for he continually desireth the holy and perfect 
will of God ; and any tendency to an unholy 
desire, he by the grace of God stifleth in the 
birth. Nor, (4.) Doth he sin by infirmities, 
whether in act, word, or thought; for his in- 
firmities have no concurrence of the will ; and 
without this they are not properly sins. Thus, 
' he that is born of God, doth not commit sin ;' 
and though he cannot say he hath not sinned, 
yet now ' he sinneth not.' 

" This, then, is the salvation which is through 
faith, even in the present world : a salvation 
from sin, and the consequences of sin, both 



REV. EDWARD 15. 1M sKV, D.D. 37 

often expressed in the iford 'justification;' 

which, taken in the largest sense, implies a 
deliverance from guilt and punishment, by the 
atonement of Christ actually applied to the soul 
of the sinner, now believing on him ; and a 
deliverance from the power of sin, through 
Christ formed in him. So that he who is thus 
justified, or saved by faith, is indeed born again. 
He is ' born again of the Spirit,' unto a new 
4 life,' which is ' hid with Christ in God.' And 
as a new-born babe, he gladly receives the 
adoXov, ' sincere milk of the word,' and ' grows 
thereby ;' going on in the might of the Lord 
his God, from faith to faith, from grace to 
grace, until at length he come unto ' a perfect 
man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful- 
ness of Christ.'"* 

In regard to the happiness connected with 
this state of acceptance with God, and of per- 
sonal conformity to his will, Mr. Wesley's lan- 
guage is clear and explicit. Having observed, 
that the children of God are described in Holy 
Scripture as bearing various characteristic 
marks, by which they are distinguished from 
other men, he inquires, " How does it appear 
that we have these marks ? How does it ap- 
pear that we do love God and our neighbour, 

* Wesley's Works, vol. i, pp. 15, 1C. 



38 A LETTER TO 

and that, we keep his commandments ? Observe, 
that the meaning of the question is, How does 
it appear to ourselves, not to others ? I would 
ask him, then, who proposes this question, 
How does it appear to you, that you are alive, 
and that you are now in ease and not in pain ? 
Are you not immediately conscious of it ? By 
the same immediate consciousness you will 
know if your soul is alive to God ; if you are 
saved from the pain of proud wrath, and have 
the ease of a meek and quiet spirit. By the 
same means you cannot but perceive if you 
love, rejoice, and delight in God. By the 
same you must be directly assured if you love 
your neighbour as yourself; if you are kindly 
affectioned to all mankind, and full of gentle- 
ness and long-suffering. And with regard to 
the outward mark of the children of God, which 
is, according to St. John, the keeping his com- 
mandments, you undoubtedly know in your own 
breast, if by the grace of God it belongs to you. 
Your conscience informs you from day to day, 
if you do not take the name of God within your 
lips, unless with seriousness and devotion, with 1 
reverence and godly fear ; if you remember the 
sabbath-day, to keep it holy ; if you honour 
your father and mother ; if you do to all as 
you would they should do unto you ; if you 



REV. EDWARD B, PUSEV, D. D. 39 

possess your body in sanctification and hon- 
our ; and if, whether you eat or drink, you 
are temperate therein, and do all to the glory 
of God. 

" Now this is properly the testimony of our 
own spirit ; even the testimony of our own con- 
science, that God hath given to us to be holy 
of heart, and holy in outward conversation. It 
is a consciousness of our having received, in 
and by the Spirit of adoption, the tempers men- 
tioned in the word of God, as belonging to his 
adopted children ; even a loving heart toward 
God, and toward all mankind ; hanging with 
child-like confidence on God, our Father, desir- 
ing nothing but him, casting all our care upon 
him, and embracing every child of man with 
earnest, tender affection ; a consciousness that 
we are inwardly conformed, by the Spirit of 
God, to the image of his Son, and that we walk 
before him in justice, mercy, and truth, doing 
the things which are pleasing in his sight. 

" But what is that testimony of God's Spirit 
which is superadded to and conjoined with this ? 
How does he ' bear witness with our spirit, that 
we are the children of God V It is hard to find 
words in the language of men to explain the 
deep things of God. Indeed, there are none 
that will adequately express what the children 



40 A LETTER TO 

of God experience. But perhaps one might 
say, (desiring any who are taught of God to 
correct, to soften, or strengthen the expression,) 
The testimony of the Spirit is an inward im- 
pression on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God 
directly witnesses to my spirit, that I am a 
child of God ; that Jesus Christ hath loved me, 
and given himself for me ; and that all my sins are 
blotted out, and I, even I, am reconciled to God. 

" That this testimony of the Spirit of God 
must needs, in the nature of things, be antece- 
dent to the testimony of our own spirit, may 
appear from this single consideration : We must 
be holy of heart, and holy of life, before we can 
be conscious that we are so ; before we can 
have the testimony of our spirit, that we are in- 
wardly and outwardly holy. But we must love- 
God before we can be holy at all, this being 
the root of all holiness. Now, we cannot love 
God till we know he loves us. ' We love him, 
because he first loved us.' And we cannot 
know his pardoning love to us till his Spirit 
witnesses it to our spirit. Since, therefore, 
this testimony of his Spirit must precede the 
love of God and all holiness, of consequence, it 
must precede our inward consciousness thereof, 
or the testimony of our spirit concerning them. 

" Then, and not till then, — when the Spirit 



KKV. EDWARD B. PFSEY, D. D. 11 

of God beareth that witness to our spirit, 'God 
hath loved thee, and given his own Son to be 
the propitiation for thy sins ; the Son of God 
hath loved thee, and hath washed thee from 
thy sins in his blood,' — we love God because he 
first loved us ; and for his sake we love our 
brother also. And of this we cannot but be 
conscious to ourselves. ' We know the things 
that are freely given us of God.' We know 
that we love God, and keep his commandments ; 
and hereby also we know that we are of God. 
This is that testimony of our own spirit, which, 
so long as we continue to love God, and keep 
his commandments, continues joined with the 
testimony of God's Spirit, that we are the chil- 
dren of God. "* 

With respect to the means by which this 
witness may be clearly and solidly distinguish- 
ed from the presumption of a natural mind, and 
the delusion of the wicked one, Mr. Wesley 
remarks, that the Holy Spirit's witness of adop- 
tion is always preceded by true repentance, by 
which all sin is lamented, confessed, and re- 
nounced ; and is invariably accompanied by a 
great inward change from sin to holiness, so 
that the carnal and devilish mind is exchanged 
for the mind that was in Christ. He then adds, 

* Wesley's Works, vol. i, pp. 87, 88. 



42 A LETTER TO 

" But waiving the consideration of whatever he 
has or has not experienced in time past, by the 
present marks may we easily distinguish a child 
of God from a presumptuous self-deceiver. The 
Scriptures describe that joy in the Lord which 
accompanies the witness of his Spirit, as an 
humble joy ; a joy that abases in the dust : that 
makes a pardoned sinner cry out, c I am vile ! 
What am I, or my father's house ? Now mine 
eye seeth thee, I abhor myself in dust and 
ashes !! And wherever lowliness is, there is 
meekness, patience, gentleness, long-suffering. 
There is a soft, yielding spirit ; a mildness and 
sweetness, a tenderness of soul, which words 
cannot express. But do these fruits attend that 
supposed testimony of the Spirit in a presump- 
tuous man ? Just the reverse. The more con- 
fident he is of the favour of God, the more is. 
he lifted up; the more, does he exalt himself; 
the more haughty and assuming is his whole 
behaviour. The stronger witness he imagines 
himself to have, the more overbearing he is to 
all around him ; the more incapable of receiv- 
ing any reproof; the more impatient of contra- 
diction. Instead of being more meek, and gen- 
tle, and teachable, more ' swift to hear,' and 
' slow to speak,' he is more slow to hear, and 
swift to speak ; more unready to learn of any 



RKV. EDWARD B. PU8EY, D. D. 43 

one ; more fiery and vehement in his temper, 
and eager in his conversation. Yea, perhaps, 
there will sometimes appear a kind of fierce- 
ness in his air, his manner of speaking, his 
whole deportment, as if he were just going to 
take the matter out of God's hands, and himself 
to devour the adversaries. 

" Once more. The Scriptures teach, 'This 
is the love of God,' the sure mark thereof, ' that 
we keep his commandments,' 1 John v, 3. And 
our Lord himself saith, ' He that keepeth my 
commandments, he it is that loveth me,' John 
xiv, 21. Love rejoices to obey ; to do in every 
point whatever is acceptable to the beloved. A 
true lover of God hastens to do his will on 
earth as it is done in heaven. But is this the 
character of the presumptuous pretender to the 
love of God ? Nay, but his love gives him a 
liberty to disobey, to break, not keep, the com- 
mandments of God, Perhaps when he was in 
fear of the wrath of God, he did labour to do 
his will. But now, looking on himself as c not 
under the law,' he thinks he is no longer obliged 
to observe it. He is therefore less zealous of 
good works ; less careful to abstain from evil ; 
less watchful over his own heart ; less jealous 
over his tongue. He is less earnest to deny 
himself, and to take up his cross daily. In a 



44 A LETTER TO 

word, the whole form of his life is changed, 
since he has fancied himself to be at liberty. 
He is no longer exercising himself unto godli- 
ness ; wrestling not only with flesh and blood, 
but with principalities and powers, enduring 
hardships, agonizing to enter in at the strait 
gate. No ; he has found an easier way to hea- 
ven ; a broad, smooth, flowery path; in which 
he can say to his soul, ' Soul, take thine ease ; 
eat, drink, and be merry.' It follows, with un- 
deniable evidence, that he has not the true tes- 
timony of his own spirit. He cannot be con- 
scious of having those marks which he hath 
not ; that lowliness, meekness, and obedience ; 
nor yet can the Spirit of the God of truth bear 
witness to a lie ; or testify that he is a child of 
God, when he is manifestly a child of the 
devil."* 

Such is the nature of Wesleyan teaching on 
these all-important subjects. A man is con- 
vinced of sin by the word and Spirit of God ; 
and, under a distressing sense of his guilt, and 
of the entire corruption of his nature, he be- 
comes alarmed and penitent, and acknowledges 
his just liability to the vengeance of eternal 
fire. He confesses his sins to God with con- 
trition, and renounces them with shame and 

* Wesley's Works, vol. i, p. 91. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 45 

abhorrence. Recognising in the death of Christ 
an atonement for sin, he believes in Christ, so 
as to renounce every other dependance and 
hope, and thus passes from death unto life. 
His person is justified, and he becomes an 
adopted child of God. The Holy Spirit bears 
a direct and an inward witness to his adoption ; 
and hence he loves God, as the God of pardon- 
ing mercy, and all mankind for God's sake. 
This love to God and man, which the Holy 
Spirit inspires, is the principle of all holiness, 
and of all acceptable obedience. From this 
principle flow delight in God, obedience to 
his commandments, meek submission to his 
providential dispensations, zeal for his glory, 
forgiveness of injuries, and a generous desire 
to do good to all men, to enemies as well as 
friends. The man's nature is so changed, by 
the grace of the Holy Spirit, that sin ceases to 
have dominion over him, and he presents him- 
self to God as a holy living sacrifice. In this 
state of happiness and of actual conformity to 
the divine will, it is his privilege not only to 
remain, but daily to advance till his redeemed 
and sanctified spirit enters into the celestial 
paradise. These views of personal religion 
are explained and defended, in their just pro- 
portions, and with admirable clearness, con- 



46 A LETTER TO 

sistency, and power, in Mr. Wesley's Sermons, 
and in his Appeals to Men of Reason and Re- 
ligion. To his judgment on all these points 
the people who bear his name have ever paid 
a respectful deference, and never more so than 
in the present times; believing that, on these 
subjects especially, he has given a just exposi- 
tion of God's own word. 

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit's witness in 
the hearts of believers, that they are the 
adopted children of God, is not a peculiarity of 
Methodism ; but has been explicitly avowed 
by several of the most accomplished divines 
that ever lived. Testimonies without end 
might easily be adduced in favour of this great 
privilege of Christianity. Two only shall at 
present suffice. The first shall be that of Bish- 
op Pearson, whose orthodoxy few men would 
have the boldness to impeach. " It is the office 
of the Holy Ghost," says he, " to assure us of 
the adoption of sons ; to create in us a sense of 
the paternal love of God toward us ; to give us 
an earnest of our everlasting inheritance. As 
therefore we are born again by the Spirit, and 
receive from him our regeneration ; so we also 
are assured by the same Spirit of our adoption : 
because, being sons, we are also heirs, ' heirs 
of God, and joint heirs with Christ ;' by the 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 47 

same Spirit we have the pledge, or rather the 
earnest, of our inheritance."* In proof of this 
he refers to Rom. v, 5; viii, 14; Gal. iv, 6: 
Rom. viii, 15, 16. 

An important document, entitled " The Con- 
fession of the Christian Faith," used formerly 
to be appended, with certain prayers, to the 
authorized version of the Holy Scriptures. In 
that document Christians were taught to say, " I 
believe and confess the Holy Ghost, God equal 
with the Father and the Son, who regenerateth 
and sanctifieth us, ruleth and guideth us unto 
all truth, persuading most assuredly in our 
consciences that we be the children of God, 
brethren to Jesus Christ, and fellow-heirs with 
him of life everlasting." 

If this doctrine were taken in an isolated form, 
though it is clearly deducible from the Holy 
Scriptures, it would be liable to great abuse ; 
but it is effectually guarded by that of sanctifi- 
cation, with which the sacred writers always 
connect it ; and no man has shown this connec- 
tion with greater clearness and force than Mr. 
Wesley. He acknowledges no witness of 
adoption but such as is obtained by faith in 
Christ, and is immediately followed by inward 
and outward holiness. Nor can any such wit- 

* Exposition of the Creed, article viii. 



48 A LETTER TO 

ness be enjoyed a single hour, if sin be indulged, 
or the duties of godliness and morality be wil- 
fully neglected. 

We will now consider the exposition which 
you have given of these subjects, with its 
accompanying censures and charges. 

You speak of a "section of the Wesleyan 
body," among whom " the original error" of 
Methodism on the question of justification 
" has been more fatally developing itself:" and 
you intimate that the Methodists who commu- 
nicate in the established Church are less erro- 
neous than the rest. You will allow me, how- 
ever, to say, that I know of no " section" in 
that " body" who differ from their brethren, 
either with respect to the nature of this great 
blessing, or the method of obtaining it. This 
statement, like many others to which you have 
given currency, has no foundation in fact. 

" They who go over" to what you call this 
" original error," we are further informed, " are 
taught to look for ' present salvation ;' that is," 
say you, " a sensible assurance of salvation." 
Here I have again to complain both of ambigu- 
ity and misrepresentation. The term " salva- 
tion," as you well know, is sometimes used to 
denote that state of peace and holiness into 
which men are brought by the present exercise 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 40 

of faith in Christ ; and at other times it signi- 
fies final happiness in the enjoyment of God in 
glory. The Wesleyan body, not believing the 
tenet of absolute predestination, do not hold 
" an assurance of salvation" in the latter of 
these senses. They hold, indeed, with the 
Scriptures, a " full assurance of hope" but no- 
thing more, till a man has actually entered into 
the blissful presence of God. The " assurance" 
for which they contend, if we must use the 
term, is the " assurance" of present adoption, 
communicated by the witness of the Holy 
Spirit, and confirmed by personal conformity to 
God's word and will. 

By " present salvation," you tell us the Wes- 
leyan body understand " a sensible assurance 
of salvation." This is a most unfair and mis- 
leading statement, When the Wesleyans 
speak of c; present salvation," as we have al- 
ready seen by an extract from Mr. Wesley, 
they understand far more than you have chosen 
to-express. They mean nothing less than pre- 
sent deliverance from sin, its guilt, its misery, 
its power ; so that the persons who have ob- 
tained it are no longer under condemnation, nor 
do they live in the commission of sin, but wor- 
ship God in spirit and in truth, and serve him in 
holiness and rrghteousness. " Wesleyanism" 



50 A LETTER TO 

acknowledges no "assurance" but that which 
is preceded by sincere repentance, and connect- 
ed with a sanctified heart and an upright life. 

The reality of such an " assurance" you ap- 
pear to confess, but deny that it is one of the 
ordinary blessings of Christianity ; and there- 
fore strongly condemn the Wesleyans for offer- 
ing it, " indiscriminately," to those who are 
convinced of sin, as a gift which they may 
forthwith receive, by faith in the Son of God ; 
for it is only upon the penitent that they press 
the duty of immediately believing with the 
heart unto righteousness. Men must first be 
" poor in spirit," and u mourn" under an humb- 
ling conviction of their guilt and depravity, be- 
fore the Holy Spirit will " comfort" them by the 
witness of their adoption into the family of God. 
The " assurance" of which He is the author, 
you state, " is vouchsafed often to God's ser- 
vants on their dying beds ;" but " probably rarely 
until the close of life, and still less at the first 
conversion of a sinner :" you therefore add, as 
matter of blame, that M what God, when he is 
pleased to vouchsafe it, ordinarily bestows as 
the reward, at the end, the Wesleyan is taught 
to look for at the outset" of the Christian life. 
Two things are here asserted : First, that the 
" assurance" in question is rarely bestowed 



RLV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 51 

until the close of life ; and, secondly, that it is 
" ordinarily" given only as a " reward." On 
both these points I join issue with you ; and 
challenge you to produce a single passage of 
Holy Scripture that, in its obvious and legitimate 
sense, directly supports either one position or 
the other. The Christian salvation, including 
happiness in God, and freedom from sin, is 
never spoken of either in the Old or the New 
Testament as a " reward" of pious obedience ; 
but as the gift of God, freely bestowed through 
Jesus Christ, and obtained by faith exercised 
in a penitent state of the heart : nor is the 
slightest intimation ever given, that God re- 
serves the manifestation of his forgiving mercy 
to his people " until the close of life." The 
subject is of immense importance, involving the 
very substance and character of personal reli- 
gion. If your theory be correct, it is not too 
much to say that millions of upright Christians 
have been false witnesses before God. If you 
are in error, you place yourself in a position of 
fearful responsibility : for you lower the stand- 
ard of Christianity, and make sad the hearts of 
those whom God commands to rejoice. To the 
law and the testimony, then, let the appeal be 
made. The following passages are conceived 
to bear upon the question. 



52 A LETTER TO 

" To him that vvorketh not, but believeth on 
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is 
counted for righteousness. Even as David 
also describeth the blessedness of the man unto 
whom God imputeth righteousness without 
works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniqui- 
ties are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not 
impute sin." Rom. iv, 5-8. Happiness is here 
expressly declared to be connected with the 
forgiveness of sin, and both are spoken of as 
present blessings. Is either of them described 
as a "reward?" Nay, verily; for they are 
bestowed upon the " ungodly," and " him that 
worketh not." Being guilty and corrupt at the 
very time of his justification, the man was in- 
capable of yielding acceptable obedience to the 
moral law ; but by " believing" he received 
pardon and a new heart, in consequence of 
which he was made emphatically " happy." 
No intimation is given that the " assurance," 
which was the basis of his happiness, and with- 
out which neither his understanding nor his 
conscience could be at rest, was reserved till 
the period of mortal sickness. This is an 
apocryphal doctrine, and not that of David and 
St. Paul. The Jewish prophet and the Chris- 
tian apostle bear a united testimony to the great 



REV. EDWARD B, PDSEY, D.D. 53 

truth of free justification by faith, and to the 
mental tranquillity, rich, solid, and permanent, 
which accompanies that blessed gift of God. 

" Therefore being justified by faith, we have 
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 
by whom also we have access by faith into this 
grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope 
of the glory of God," Rom. v, 1,2. Here the 
same doctrine is distinctly taught. Men are 
"justified by faith,' 1 and are thus introduced 
into a state of " grace," of favour or acceptance 
with God, in which they " stand." In this 
state they " have peace with God." Call this 
peace what you please, it is undeniably such an 
" assurance" of God's love to them, as enables 
them to "rejoice in hope" of his " glory." This 
also is asserted of believers " indiscriminately," 
at the " outset" of the Christian life, not at its 
" close" only ; and no hint is given that these 
blessings were in any sense conferred as the 
" reward" of any past services. They belong 
to " the common salvation," and are bestowed 
" without money and without price." 

" The love of God is shed abroad in our 
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto 
us," verse 5. " We also joy in God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now 
received the atonement," verse 11. "The 



54 A LETTER TO 

love of God" is here said to be poured into the 
hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit, who 
dwells in them ; and although the manner in 
which this is done may be inexplicable, the 
fact itself must, in the nature of things, be mat- 
ter of personal consciousness and of holy joy. 
They " have received the atonement," or the 
great benefit of " reconciliation" with God ; and 
the result is, that they "joy in" him. The as- 
surance of the divine favour, through Christ, is 
a means of kindling within them the flame of 
grateful love to God, and of exciting in them a 
joy of which God is both the author and the 
end. All this is spoken of without even the 
most distant allusion to the bed of death, or to 
the character of a " reward." 

" For ye have not received the spirit of bon- 
dage again to fear : but ye have received the 
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Fa- 
ther. The Spirit itself beareth witness with 
our spirit, that we are the children of God." 
Rom. viii, 15, 16. Adoption is here assumed 
to be one of the ordinary blessings of Christi- 
anity, conferred upon all believers, without dis- 
tinction ; and the fact is declared to be wit- 
nessed by the Holy Ghost to the spirits of 
those who are thus constituted the children of 
God. Let that witness be what it may, it 



REV. EDWARD B. PU8EY, D. D. 55 

must be decisive of the fact to which it relates, 
or it is no witness at all. In the parallel pas- 
sage, the apostle, addressing the same class of 
persons, says, a Because ye are sons, God hath 
sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, 
crying, Abba, Father," Gal. iv, 6. It is not, 
therefore, because the parties are brought to 
" the close of life," and have long signalized 
themselves by their pious obedience, that they 
receive the " assurance" of their adoption 
as a " reward ;" but it is " because they are 
sons ;" and all attain to this distinction who be- 
lieve in the Lord Jesus : for " as many as re- 
ceived him, to them gave he power to become 
the sons of God, even to them that believe on 
his name," John i, 12. 

11 For the kingdom of God is not meat and 
drink ; but righteousness, and peace, and joy 
in the Holy Ghost," Rom. xiv, 17. In the 
heart of a man who has a due sense of his 
responsibility to God, of the strict account 
which awaits him, and of the endless conse- 
quences of that account, for happiness or mise- 
ry, there can be no true " peace and joy," with- 
out some " assurance" of the divine favour. 
Now, " peace and joy," as the gracious com- 
munications of the Holy Ghost, are here de- 
clared to be, not accidents of true religion ; for 



56 A LETTER TO 

they enter into its very substance and nature, 
as " righteousness" itself does. To say that 
they are only imparted at iS the close of life," is 
to say that, till then, " the kingdom of God" is 
not ordinarily set up in the souls of men, and, 
in effect, to deny the reality of early and living 
piety. But in the absence of piety, what is it 
that God " rewards" with the consolation of 
" assurance ?" 

" Now the God of hope fill you with all joy 
and peace in believing, that ye may abound in 
hope through the power of the Holy Ghost," 
Rom. xv, 13. It is here assumed that God 
himself communicates to his people " joy and 
peace ;" and the apostle prays that these ines- 
timable blessings might be imparted indiscrimi- 
nately " to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, 
called to be saints." Is it likely that an in- 
spired man, who knew the mind of the Lord, 
would have thus prayed, had he been aware 
that these blessings are generally reserved for 
the "close" of the Christian life ? and would 
he have asked that they might be vouchsafed 
to the people " in believing," had he known 
that they partake rather of the character of " a 
reward," than of a free gift? The discrepancy 
between the teaching of the apostle, and that 
of your pamphlet, is here striking and manifest. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 57 

" Now he which stablisheth us with you in 
Christ, and hath anointed us, is God ; who hath 
also sealed us, and given the earnest of the 
Spirit in our hearts," 2 Cor. i, 21, 22. "In 
whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the 
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation : in 
whom also after that ye believed, ye were seal- 
ed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is 
the earnest of our inheritance until the redemp- 
tion of the purchased possession, unto the 
praise of his glory," Eph. i, 13, 14. Heaven 
is often spoken of in Scripture as the future 
and everlasting " inheritance" of the people of 
God. It is " the inheritance of the saints in 
light ;" (Col. i, 12 ;) and " an inheritance incor- 
ruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away," 1 Peter i, 4. The Holy Spirit, not in 
his miraculous operations, but in the " hearts" 
of believers, is here declared to be the " earnest" 
of that " inheritance." But he can be no 
" earnest" to any man without what you call 
u assurance." Individuals must know that they 
are so far under his influence, as to be entitled 
to that " inheritance," and also prepared for it, 
or he is no " earnest" to them. The apostle 
gives no intimation whatever, that there is any 
thing peculiar in this. He rather speaks of it 
as the common privilege of the Corinthian and 



58 A LETTER TO 

Ephesian churches ; and he speaks of it, too, 
as that which was directly consequent upon 
11 believing," and not as something special, which 
was reserved for the bed of death. 

" The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek- 
ness, temperance," Gal. v, 22, 23. The graces 
of the Christian character, as here specified, 
are the direct results of the Holy Spirit's opera- 
tion upon the hearts of believers. They are 
distinct in their nature, but inseparable in their 
existence ; and hence they are not spoken of 
as many, but as the undivided " fruit of the 
Spirit." Among them are "joy and peace," 
which imply an " assurance" of present accept- 
ance with God. The apostle speaks of them, 
not as communicated at different times, but as 
arising simultaneously under the gracious ener- 
gy of the sanctifying and life-giving Spirit of 
God. It is a mere assumption, for which there 
is no authority whatever, to say, that " love, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, and 
meekness," constitute the characteristics of a 
Christian during life, and that at the " close" 
of his career, and as a " reward" of former 
services, "joy and peace" are then "vouch- 
safed." Such " teaching" certainly has " no 
warrant in the word of God," whatever claim it 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 59 

may make to " catholicity." It is as absurd as 
it is nnscriptural. 

" Whom having not seen, ye love ; in whom, 
though now you see him not, yet believing, ye 
rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory ; 
receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of 
your souls," 1 Peter i, 8, 9. In these words 
St. Peter gives precisely the same view that 
St. Paul has done of the happiness which enters 
into the very nature of Christianity. He de- 
scribes it not merely by the terms "peace and 
joy," but declares it to be "joy unspeakable, and 
full of glory ;" joy that cannot be adequately 
expressed in the language of men, and which 
is indeed a foretaste of the " far more exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glory" which awaits 
the sanctified in a future state. Surely those 
who possess this have an "assurance" — a satis- 
fying evidence — of their filial relation to God ; 
for those only are the " heirs of God" who are 
his " sons." Does the apostle, then, speak of 
this "joy" as something peculiar, reserved for 
the bed of death, and withheld from the people 
of God during the greater part of their earthly 
pilgrimage ? By no means. The entire struc- 
ture of the passage proves the contrary. " The 
strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, 
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia," are addressed 



60 A LETTER TO 

" indiscriminately ;" and their joy, rich and 
abundant as it was, is said to have resulted 
from their " believing" in their unseen Re- 
deemer. They exercised " faith" in him, with 
a direct reference to " the salvation of their 
souls ;" and the consequence was, as we are 
here informed, that they " received" this " sal- 
vation," including the happiness which the Holy 
Spirit has expressed in terms of such unwont- 
ed force. 

These are but a very small part of the texts 
of Holy Scripture which are conceived to bear 
upon the question at issue. " Wesleyanism" 
teaches that an " assurance" — a satisfying evi- 
dence — of acceptance with God, arising from 
the joint testimony of the Holy Spirit and the 
believer's own conscience, is directly conse- 
quent upon the exercise of faith in Christ, on 
the part of a truly penitent sinner. This you 
boldly declare to be " heresy," and assert that 
such an " assurance" is rarely (if ever) given, 
except on the bed of death, and as a "reward." 
Let the reader judge on which side the truth 
lies. For myself, I know not a single text of 
the New Testament, when fairly interpreted, 
that gives even the semblance of countenance 
to your theory, confident though the language 
be in which you express yourself. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 61 

The Wesleyan practice, in reference to this 
subject, though severely censured by you, we 
conceive to be justified by apostolic example ; 
for the doctrine of the New Testament, on this 
question, is strikingly confirmed by the evange- 
lical history. The apostles never hesitated to 
offer " a present salvation'' to all whom they 
found prepared, by a deep conviction of their 
sin and danger, to receive it ; and whenever 
their message was cordially embraced, " a pre- 
sent salvation" was invariably obtained by the 
people. It is a remarkable fact, that all the 
conversions which are recorded in the Acts of 
the Apostles were effected in a short period of 
time, and were all immediately followed by 
that " salvation" from the guilt, and misery, and 
power of sin, which you blame the Methodists 
for teaching the penitent among their hearers 
to seek and expect, in the exercise of faith in 
Christ. 

When St. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, 
preached Christ to the Jews, and charged them 
with having " by wicked hands crucified and 
slain" Him whom God had sent and raised 
from the dead, many of them were justly alarm- 
ed for the consequences of their sin, and " said 
to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men 
and brethren, what shall we do ?" " Peter said 



62 A LETTER TO 

unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one 
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the re- 
mission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 
the Holy Ghost," Acts ii, 37, 38. Here was an 
offer of " present salvation" to a numerous class 
of most notorious offenders ; and that offer was 
made to " every one" of them " indiscriminate- 
ly." They were directed to " repent," especi- 
ally of their great wickedness in the betrayal 
and murder of the Son of God. But they were 
not to rest in this. They were, at the same 
time, " to be baptized (enl rc5 bvofiari) in the 
name of Jesus Christ ;" and that with a direct 
and special reference to " the remission of their 
sins :" and they were assured that they should 
also " receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 

In submitting to be baptized in the name of 
Christ, it was, of course, understood that they 
" received Christ" in all his characters and 
offices, and especially as a sacrifice for sin ; 
according to the teaching of St. Paul : " Know 
ye not, that so many of us as were baptized 
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" 
Rom. vi, 3. Justifying faith is therefore de- 
clared to be " faith in his blood," Rom. iii, 25. 
All who received baptism in the full exercise 
of this faith, according to the provisions of the 
evangelical covenant, received also the bless- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D. 63 

ing of justification, and with it the regenerating 
and sanctifying Spirit. 

The result of St. Peter's exhortation is thus 
stated : " Then they that gladly received his 
word were baptized : and the same day there 
were added unto them about three thousand 
souls. And they continued steadfastly in the 
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in break- 
ing of bread, and in prayers. And all that be- 
lieved were together, and had all things com- 
mon ; and sold their possessions and goods, and 
parted them to all men, as every man had need. 
And they, continuing with one accord in the 
temple, and breaking bread from house to house, 
did eat their meat with gladness and singleness 
of heart, praising God, and having favour with 
all the people." The " present salvation," 
which St. Peter so promptly and unequivocally 
offered, is here described as actually obtained 
by a large number of people, to whom that 
apostle addressed himself. " About three thou- 
sand" persons, on " the same day," were in- 
structed, " gladly received the word," " be- 
lieved," " were baptized," " were added" to the 
congregation of the faithful, became examples 
of piety, and of every moral excellence. Some 
thousands more were soon after converted in 
the same manner ; until " there was a great 



64 A LETTER TO 

persecution against the church which was at 
Jerusalem ; and they were all scattered abroad 
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, 
except the apostles," Acts viii, 1. Yet God at 
length remembered his persecuted servants, 
and gave them a season of general tranquillity. 
" Then had the churches rest throughout all 
Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edi- 
fied ; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and 
the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multi- 
plied," Acts ix, 31. Here we again meet the 
people who had formed the original church in 
Jerusalem, and who had been converted to 
Christianity about four years. Immediately af- 
ter their conversion they had enjoyed the com- 
munion of saints, in .their intercourse with each 
other ; and it is instructive to find, that, in their 
exile, they cherished the same social charac- 
ter ; for they were united together in " church- 
es." They diligently employed the time of 
peace for the improvement of their knowledge 
and piety ; for they " were edified :" and it is 
mentioned, as their permanent and unvarying 
character and habit, that they " walked in the 
fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy 
Ghost." 

The case of these people, I apprehend, bears 
directly upon the question at issue. If any 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 65 

class of offenders might be received to the 
mere} 7 of God, and yet left destitute of spiritual 
consolation, we should suppose that this would 
have been the doom of the men who had de- 
spised the ministry of the Son of God, blas- 
phemed his miracles and name, and even cla- 
moured for his blood ; yet, when they repented 
of their sin, and believed in Christ, they were 
made permanently happy, as well as holy. Im- 
mediately after their conversion, they " ate their 
meat with gladness," as well as " singleness of 
heart," and spent much of their time daily in 
" praising God." And then, after a lapse of 
four years, notwithstanding the persecutions by 
which they had been harassed, we find them 
still living under the Holy Spirit's richest in- 
fluence, and filled with his " comfort." In their 
case " assurance" was no " reward," but a free 
gift. It was not reserved for ' ; the bed of death ;" 
for they " walked" in it, while engaged in the 
duties of life, and suffering its trials. Here 
was " present salvation," preached undeniably 
by inspired apostles, and actually vouchsafed by 
God himself, not to a few favoured and solitary 
individuals, but to many thousands of penitent 
and believing Jews, the greater part of whom, 
up to that period, had been the most deeply 
guilty of the human race. 
5 



66 A LETTER TO 

The case of the Ethiopian eunuch has also 
a direct bearing upon this argument. He was 
probably a Jewish proselyte, and a devout and 
moral man, but a stranger to the gospel. While 
sitting in his chariot, he was instructed by the 
evangelist Philip, with respect to the nature, 
the character, and the work of Christ, and at 
once declared himself a believer. He descend- 
ed from his chariot to receive baptism in the 
name of the Lord ; and then, resuming his seat, 
" he went on his way rejoicing," though travel- 
ling through a " desert" country, and separated 
from his spiritual guide. The joy with which 
he was inspired was no " reward" of Christian 
obedience, nor was it reserved till the " close 
of life :" for it was coeval with his Christiani- 
ty. The exercise of his faith in " the Son of 
God" was immediately followed, as in the con- 
verts of the feast of Pentecost, with rich and 
solid happiness. Acts viii, 26-40. 

The process of conversion in Saul of Tarsus 
occupied more time than any other that we read 
of in this part of the inspired narrative. He 
was three days in blindness and penitential 
sorrow, " and neither did eat nor drink ;" for 
his grief appears during this time to have been 
unmitigated by the news of pardon, or by any 
disclosure of the purpose of God respecting 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D. 67 

him. He had been informed that, at Damas- 
cus, he should be " told all things that were 
appointed him to do ;" but what those things 
were, as yet he knew not. Ananias, address- 
ing him, said, " The God of our fathers hath 
chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, 
and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the 
voice of his mouth. For thou shalt be his 
witness unto all men of what thou hast seen 
and heard." Acts xxii, 14, 15. It would seem 
that after Saul had been thus informed of the 
divine intention toward him, he manifested an 
inclination still to linger in his present state ; 
when his spiritual monitor, true to the doctrine 
of "present salvation," roused him by saying, 
" x\nd now why tarriest thou ? Arise, and be 
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on 
the name of the Lord." Yerse 16. This stir- 
ring admonition, accompanied by the imposi- 
tion of hands, had the desired effect. " Imme- 
diately there fell from his eyes as it had been 
scales ; and he received sight forthwith, and 
arose and was baptized," xAxts ix, 18. Like the 
three thousand penitent Jews, on the day of 
Pentecost, Saul received the blessing of justi- 
fication in connection with baptism, because 
he submitted to that sacrament believing in 
Christ. In his epistles, therefore, he never 



68 A LETTER TO 

attributes justification to baptism, but always to 
faith. Had faith been wanting, whoever had 
baptized him, he would have still remained in 
his guilty condition, as did Simon Magus, to 
whom St. Philip administered that sacred ordi- 
nance. " We who are Jews by nature," said 
he to St. Peter, " and not sinners of the Gen- 
tiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the 
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus 
Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, 
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ," 
Gal. ii, 15, 16. 

In a very short period after his conversion 
Saul entered upon the ministry that was as- 
signed him ; for he " straightway preached 
Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of 
God." The holy cheerfulness and self-posses- 
sion with which he met the perils and opposi- 
tion of the apostolic life, and the language of 
confidence and triumph which he invariably 
used when speaking of his spiritual state and* 
of his hopes, demonstrate that he was no 
stranger to the joys of " assurance." He pos- 
sessed them not on the bed of death, (for it 
was not his lot to lie there,) but in the time of 
imprisonment and of martyrdom ; (2 Tim. iv, 7, 
8 ;) for they had attended him through his 
wonderful career of labour an! suffering. He 



REV. EDWARD B. PtfSEY, D. 1). 69 

deemed his persecutions and privations, inces- 
sant and severe as they were, not worthy of 
regard, when viewed in connection with the 
glory that was to be revealed, and the bright 
prospect of which was ever in his view. Often 
does he refer to his spiritual enjoyments ; but 
never does he speak of them as " a reward." 
They constituted a part of that salvation which 
he had received as the free gift of God, through 
the mediation of his Son. 

Scarcely less striking is the refutation of 
your theory, which is furnished by the conver- 
sion of the jailer at Philippi. " At midnight," 
says the sacred historian, " Paul and Silas 
prayed, and sang praises to God : and the pri- 
soners heard them. And suddenly there was a 
great earthquake, so that the foundations of the 
prison were shaken : and immediately all the 
doors were opened, and every one's bands were 
loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking 
out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors 
open, he drew out his sword, and would have 
killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had 
been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, 
Do thyself no harm ; for we are all here. 
Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and 
came trembling, and fell down before Paul and 
Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, 



70 A LETTER TO 

what must I do to be saved ? And they said, 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake 
unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that 
were in his house. And he took them the 
same hour of the night, and washed their 
stripes ; and was baptized, he and all his, 
straightway. And when he had brought them 
into his house, he set meat before them, and 
rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." 
Acts xvi, 25-34. 

For several days it had been announced in 
the streets of Philippi, that Paul and Silas 
were "servants of the most high God," whose 
business it was to " show unto" mankind " the 
way of salvation ;" and now that the earthquake, 
and the miraculous circumstances attending it, 
seemed to proclaim the interposition of this 
great Being in behalf of his injured and perse- 
cuted servants, the jailer became alarmed, and 
inquired what he must do to obtain the " salva- 
tion" which these strangers preached. The 
question was proposed with every indication 
of deep anxiety, and of penitent submission to 
God's will. Faith in Jesus Christ was declared 
to be the grand and simple means of "salva- 
tion." This doctrine the jailer cordially and 
practically received ; so that he " was baptized, 



REV. EDWARD 11. PUSEV, D. D. <L 

he and all his, straightway." Like other con- 
verts, he was, of course, " baptized into the 
name of Christ," and with a special reference 
to Christ's " death," Rom. vi, 3. The direct 
consequence was, that he " rejoiced, believing 
in God, with all his house." In common with 
the many thousands of penitent and believing 
Jews in Jerusalem, and sincere converts every- 
where, he was filled with joy and peace : thus 
realizing the fact, that true faith is immediately 
followed by happiness, as well as by freedom 
from the dominion of sin. This momentous 
change in the jailer was wrought in less than 
one night. The earthquake, which awoke him 
out of sleep, did not take place until the " mid- 
night" hour ; and according to the order of the 
narrative, before "it was day" he had listened 
to " the word of the Lord," believed with the 
heart unto righteousness, exercised Christian 
hospitality, been baptized, and was made happy 
in God. Here was indeed " present salvation," 
the preaching of which among the Methodists 
you deem such an intolerable evil. " The peace 
and joy of faith," in the case of this converted 
heathen, were not deferred till the hour of 
death, that they might then be " vouchsafed as 
a reward." They were freely and most gra- 
ciously given with faith itself, by Him who de- 



72 A LETTER TO 

lighteth in mercy, and whose love transcends 
all thought. For in blessing mankind, in ho- 
nour of his Son, God declares, " My thoughts 
are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens 
are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than 
your thoughts." Isa. lv, 8, 9. 

The doctrine and practice of the apostles, in 
reference to this subject, are in perfect accord- 
ance with the teaching and conduct of the Lord 
Jesus. He did not hesitate, when occasion 
served, to give to several individuals the most 
express and perfect " assurance" that their sins 
were forgiven ; and that they were in such a 
state, that if they remained in it they would be 
eternally saved. When the seventy disciples, 
for instance, returned from their mission, and 
related their success, he not only told them 
that their " names were written in heaven," but 
also directed them to "rejoice" on that account. 
Luke x, 20. 

On another occasion we are informed that 
" they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, 
lying on a bed : and Jesus, seeing their faith, 
said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good 
cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee," Matt, ix, 2. 
He had, it seems, no apprehension that the 



REV. EDWARD B. PU*BY, D. D. 73 

communication of this fact would be injurious 
to the man's piety, as you strangely intimate : 
or would interrupt the workings of any such 
" repentance" as God required of him. 

We also read of " a woman that was a sin- 
ner ;" who, under a grateful sense of his par- 
doning mercy, followed him into the house of a 
Pharisee, and there " began to wash his feet 
with her tears, and did wipe them with the hairs 
of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed 
them with the ointment" which she had brought 
for that purpose. In answer to the murmuring 
Pharisee, who was offended at these things, 
Jesus said, in her hearing, "Her sins, which 
are many, are forgiven ; for," or therefore, 
" she loved much." He said also to her, 
" Thy sins are forgiven." " Thy faith hath 
saved thee ; go in peace,," Luke vii, 36-50. 
Here is another undeniable example of " pre- 
sent salvation ;" " salvation" from the guilt of 
" many" and great sins ; " salvation" obtained 
by the exercise of " faith" in Christ ; and " sal- 
vation" connected with " assurance" and an irre- 
pressible feeling of holy thankfulness and joy. 

Our blessed Lord acted in the same manner 
after his ascension to glory, as is manifest from 
his epistles to the seven churches of Asia. 
Those of them who had lost their piety he 



74 A LETTER TO 

rebuked and threatened ; but of those who 
maintained their integrity he declared his ap- 
proval ; and he urged them to perseverance by 
the promise of a future reward. To the church 
at Smyrna he administered no reproof ; and he, 
in effect, pronounced them to be in a state of 
acceptance, by saying, " Be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of life," 
Rev. ii, 10. They had only to maintain their 
present character in order to their final salvation. 
This is a very brief and faint outline of the 
evidence which Holy Scripture supplies on this 
momentous subject ; for momentous indeed it 
is, not only as affecting the happiness of good 
men, but as it relates to the very substance of 
personal religion. For let it be distinctly under- 
stood, that the Wesleyans acknowledge no au- 
thority on this question but that of Scripture. 
They would give up all that has been said con- 
cerning it by the whole train of mystic writers, 
from Thomas a Kempis to Fenelon, for one 
single sentence of inspiration. You have not 
even attempted to prove that your theory is^ 
sanctioned by God's word, but have satisfied 
yourself with caricaturing our principles, and 
then representing them as absurd and injurious. 
I have stated, on unexceptionable authority, our 
real sentiments, and will now consider the ob- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 75 

jections which you have urged against them. 
It should, however, be observed, that the only 
question to be determined refers to the testimo- 
ny of Scripture concerning the point at issue. 
If it is a doctrine fairly deducible from the in- 
spired books, that all Christians may have a 
satisfactory i; assurance" of their filial relation 
to God, and conformity to his will, no objections, 
however ingeniously constructed, and however 
confidently advanced, can render it unworthy 
of our belief. The mere circumstance, that ob- 
jections have been adduced against the affirm- 
ative of this question proves nothing to our 
disadvantage. There is not a doctrine nor a 
duty of divine revelation, against which objec- 
tions have not been advanced in one form or 
another. Even the being of a God is at this 
day denied. But we will neither abandon our 
belief in him, nor knowingly give up any thing 
that he has taught us in " his most holy word." 
You have distinctly acknowledged that " a 
sensible assurance" of the divine favour " is 
vouchsafed often to God's servants on their dy- 
ing beds ;" and yet you tell us, that " self-deceit 
must come in whenever the feelings are direct- 
ly acted upon." There certainly can be no 
" sensible assurance" without " feeling," either 
upon " a dying bed," or elsewhere. Are we 



76 A LETTER TO 

then to understand that "self-deceit" is always 
connected with " sensible assurance," even 
when God himself " vouchsafes" it, and when 
it is also " vouchsafed" as a " reward ?" But 
your statement is still more startling ; and in- 
deed leads to absolute skepticism on the subject 
of personal religion. There can, for instance, 
be no true Christian piety without repentance ; 
no repentance without sorrow ; and no sorrow 
without " feeling." This is also true of faith in 
Christ, love to God, the exercise of devotion, 
and indeed all the principles, affections, and 
acts that are connected with the Christian life. 
Now repentance, faith, love to God, zeal for his 
glory, delight in his service, and, in fact, all the 
graces of the Christian character, are the effects 
of divine influence ; and they are all connected, 
more or less, with " the feelings ;" for the sanc- 
tified heart is not a heart of stone. Whether 
you really intend to charge " self-deceit" upon 
all the people whose "feelings" are "acted 
upon" by divine truth and grace ; and if so, 
how it is that so holy an agency should produce 
such an evil effect; you will perhaps explain. 
For myself, I am utterly unable to ascertain 
what you intend to teach. Your two state- 
ments seem to be absolutely contradictory to 
each other. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 77 

To the doctrine of " assurance," as held by 
the Wesleyan body, you object, that " the 
workings of repentance and penitence are sud- 
denly checked in the convert." " To feel ' the 
burden of our sins to be intolerable' is account- 
ed want of faith." " Permanent repentance, 
and anxiety and grief for sin, are accounted 
contrary to the gospel." The entire force of 
this objection is derived from the ambiguity of 
the terms which you have seen it good to em- 
ploy. If by " repentance and penitence," by 
u permanent anxiety and grief for sin," you 
mean such a conviction of personal guilt and 
depravity as is attended with a distressing ap- 
prehension of God's impending wrath and of 
our continual liability to be plunged into endless 
misery, I acknowledge the justness of your 
charge. The Wesleyans do not think that the 
children of God are doomed to spend their days 
in such a state of spiritual servility and bond- 
age. But it is not " with them an object to 
check the strong emotions of compunction 
which God has raised in the sinner," as you 
untruly allege. It is rather " with them an ob- 
ject" to strengthen those " emotions," till, in 
the extremity of his anguish, the contrite trans- 
gressor of the law of God shall believe in 
Christ, and thus obtain an application of that 



78 A LETTER TO 

blood which " cleanseth from all sin," and 
which " purges the conscience from dead 
works." If " the emotions of compunction 
which God has raised" in any man be " check- 
ed" by human interference, the Wesleyans 
think that the only effectual relief is retarded ; 
inasmuch as no solid and lasting comfort can 
be obtained, in cases of this nature, but by 
faith in the sacrifice of Christ. The seasona- 
bleness and reality of the comfort thus obtained 
are attested by innumerable scriptures, among 
which we adduce the following : — " I love the 
Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my 
supplications. Because he hath inclined his 
ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as 
long as I live. The sorrows of death compass- 
ed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me : I 
found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon 
the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee 
deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord ; and 
righteous ; yea, our God is merciful. The Lord 
preserveth the simple : I was brought low, and 
he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my 
soul ; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with 
thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from 
death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from 
falling. I will walk before the Lord in the 
land of the living." Psalm cxvi, 1-9. " Thus 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 79 

saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth 
eternity, whose name is Holy ; I dwell in the 
high and holy place, with him also that is of a 
contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit 
of the humble, and to revive the heart of the 
contrite ones. Fori will not contend for ever, 
neither will I be always wroth : for the spirit 
should fail before me, and the souls which I 
have made. For the iniquity of his covetous- 
ness I was wroth, and smote him : I hid me, 
and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the 
way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and 
will heal him : I will lead him also, and restore 
comforts to him and to his mourners. I create 
the fruit of the lips ; Peace, peace to him that 
is far off, and to him that is near, saith the 
Lord; and I will heal him." Isa. lvii, 15-19. 
" Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take 
my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find 
rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and 
my burden is light." Matt, xi, 28-30. " Ye 
have not received the spirit of bondage again to 
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father," Rom. viii, 15. 
If you mean that " repentance," in the sense 
of a just abhorrence of sin, and of shame, and 



80 A LETTER TO 

sorrow, and humiliation before God on account 
of it, is so far "checked" by. the Wesleyan 
doctrine of " assurance," that its " workings" 
cease in those who are justified, and are filled 
with peace and joy in believing, I absolutely 
deny your allegation. Indeed, it is difficult 
to conceive that you are sincere in urging it. 
One can hardly imagine that you would so 
repeatedly have attacked the Wesleyan body, 
unless you had formed an acquaintance with 
their theology, discipline, and history, con- 
cerning which you express yourself with the 
most perfect confidence. What, then, must the 
reader think, when he is informed that, among 
those sermons of Mr. Wesley which form the 
doctrinal standards of his connection, there is 
an exceedingly impressive one on this very 
subject? It is entitled, "The Repentance of 
Believers ;" and most distinctly shows that, 
although such persons have obtained redemp- 
tion through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness 
of sins, and are so " born of the Spirit" as to be 
" new creatures," the exercise of repentance, in 
the sense just explained, is to end only with 
life. This doctrine, in truth, must be obvious 
to every one who duly considers the subject. 
The pardon of sin does not lessen its ofTensive- 
ness before the God of infinite purity. Sin is 



REV. EDWARD B. PtTSEY, D. D. 81 

still " the abominable thing that he hateth ;" 
and while a man's understanding, conscience, 
and affections are in a right state, the remem- 
brance of his natural corruption, of his actual 
transgressions, of the comparatively late period 
of his conversion, of the sin that still remains 
in him, of the imperfect manner in which 
many of his duties are discharged, of his 
numerous opportunities of doing and receiving 
good which he neglects fully to improve, and 
of his ten thousand infirmities and inadverten- 
cies, must ever fill him with sorrow and ingen- 
uous shame before God ; and that shame will 
be deep in proportion to his advancement in 
holiness. Nor ought he ever to forget the 
strict account which he must soon render to the 
Judge of quick and dead. Can the prodigal 
son, covered with " the best robe," and sitting 
at the festal board of his father, who has just 
received him with a kiss, be less impressed 
with the evil of his past conduct, than he was 
when pining among the swine in a strange land? 
Must not the recollection, that his sin had been 
committed against a parent of such unbounded 
kindness, fill him with the deepest shame, and 
lead him more than ever to detest his profligacy 
and ingratitude ? Did not the pardoned " woman 
that was a sinner" weep at the feet of Jesus, 
G 



82 A LETTER TO 

when she recollected his compassion in con- 
nection with her criminal forgetfulness of God, 
and disregard of his will ? St. Paul knew that 
he had " obtained mercy ;" yet he could never 
forget that he had been " a blasphemer, and 
injurious," so as not to be " worthy to be called 
an apostle, because he persecuted the church 
of God." To the end of his life, his godly 
shame and sorrow on account of his infidelity 
and opposition to the truth were heightened by 
every remembrance of the " exceeding" and 
" abundant" grace which had been shown to 
him. This is indeed one design of God in re- 
ceiving sinners to his mercy : " That thou may- 
est remember, and be confounded, and never 
open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, 
when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou 
hast done, saith the Lord God," Ezek. xvi, 63. 
This subject is so prominent in the theology 
of the Wesleyans, as to be distinctly and fre- 
quently introduced into the hymns which they 
are accustomed to sing in theirpublic assemblies. 

" Ah, why did I so late thee know 

Thee lovelier than the sons of men ! 

Ah, why did I no sooner go 
To thee, the only ease in pain ! 

Ashamed I sigh, and inly mourn, 

That I so late to thee did turn." 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 83 

•• I loathe myself when God I see, 
And into nothing fall, 
Content if thou exalted be, 
And Christ be all in all." 

44 PardonM for all that I have done. 
My mouth as in the dust I hide, 
And glory give to God alone, 
My God for ever pacified." 

44 As the apple of an eye, 

Thy weakest servant keep ; 
Help me at thy feet to lie, 

And there for ever weep : 
Tears of joy mine eyes o'erflow, 

That I have any hope of heaven ; 

Much of love I ought to know, 

For I have much forgiven." 
i 

Besides, a Christian is not an isolated indi- 
vidual, but a member of a religious community, 
and belongs also to the universal church of 
God. The Almighty deals with churches in 
mercy or in judgment, according to their works. 
In the purest churches there are evils to be 
confessed and lamented ; and good men are 
especially led to deprecate the consequences 
of those evils in earnest and daily prayer. 

The Christian is also a member of the com- 
monwealth, and is liable, like the rest of his coun- 
trymen, to national judgments and calamities, 
as the punishment of national sins ; and hence 



84 A LETTER TO 

it is his duty to acknowledge and bewail those 
sins before God, in secret, domestic, and pub- 
lic worship, although he may not be personally 
guilty of them, and to implore the divine for- 
bearance and mercy. 

It is therefore manifest, that as there is a 
repentance which is preparatory to justification, 
so- there is a repentance which is consequent 
upon it, and which is to end only with life, 
The following censure, therefore, is utterly 
groundless. You say, " The penitence of the 
Psalms, or that praised by St. Paul, — i Behold 
this self-same thing, that you sorrowed after a 
godly sort, what carefulness is wrought in you, 
yea, what clearing of yourselves,- yea, what in- 
dignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement 
desire, yea, what revenge 1 In all things ye 
have approved yourselves to be clear in this 
matter,' — have no place in this system, except 
to be effaced." If you mean that, according to 
the doctrine and practice of the Wesleyan body, 
the language of penitence with which the 
Psalms abound is not adapted to the use of 
Christian believers, I deny your assumption. 
Theirs is the daily language of penitence, as 
well as of holy gratitude and joy for pardon and 
the ten thousand blessings connected with it. 
At the same time it is conceded, that there are 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 85 

particular expressions in the Psalms that are 
not applicable, in their strict original meaning, 
to the case of real Christians. You yourself, 
for instance, cannot pray to be saved from 
" blood-guiltiness," as David offered that affect- 
ing petition after " the matter of Uriah." There 
are also in the Psalms prophetic complaints 
which were uttered by the Son of God, in the 
depth of his anticipated sufferings as the 
world's Redeemer : and such complaints no 
mere man can make his own, except in an ac- 
commodated sense. 

The case of the Corinthians, which you have 
adduced, was peculiar. They were criminally 
lax in the exercise of discipline. One of them 
indulged himself in conduct of which the very 
heathens would have been ashamed. He had 
committed incest with his " father's wife ;" and 
no member of the church raised his voice 
against the crying sin. They were all uncon- 
cerned, as if the act had been perfectly lawful. 
For this the apostle rebuked them with terrible 
severity. He called upon them to " mourn," 
that the Christian name had been so dishonour- 
ed ; and charged them, in the name of the Lord, 
by " delivering up" the offender " to Satan," to 
"purge out" the evil "leaven" which had be- 
gun to ferment among them. His admonitions 



86 A LETTER TO 

produced the desired effect ; and hence his ac- 
count of the repentance of the church. It is 
certainly the duty of all who have thus offend- 
ed, to repent as the Corinthians did ; but 
churches that maintain a pure discipline are 
not involved in the guilt of that people, and 
therefore cannot repent in precisely the same 
manner. Every man, however, has offended, 
in one way or another ; and to the end of his 
life should therefore manifest a becoming " in- 
dignation," " fear," and " revenge," because of 
his past misconduct, and carefully " clear him- 
self" for the time to come. I speak not with- 
out authority when I say, that I believe no 
ministers whatever inculcate this duty with 
greater frequency and earnestness than those 
of the Methodists ; and hence the injustice of 
your unmeasured censures upon them and upon 
the whole of their hearers. Both in theory 
and practice they abhor the tenets which you 
have charged upon them. 

You further state, in opposition to the Wes- 
leyan doctrine, that " ' experiences' are not the 
result of * patience,' which ' the trial of our 
faith worketh,' not the victory won by Christ's 
strength in our weakness, but what, if real, 
would be revelations of God's love." Here 
again, I apprehend, you venture upon state- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSSY, D. D. 87 

ments which are incapable of proof. What do 
the Methodists understand by " religious expe- 
rience ?" (not experiences : they are not in the 
habit of using such language.) They mean by 
it, the sorrows of repentance, arising from a 
conviction of sin, produced in the heart by the 
word and Spirit of God ; — the peace and joy 
which are imparted to the believing peni- 
tent when the guilt of sin is taken away, and 
" the love of God is shed abroad in the heart 
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto him ;" 
— the blessed change which takes place in a 
man's spirit and temper, when, through the re- 
generating power of the Holy Ghost, the earth- 
ly, sensual, and devilish mind is exchanged for 
the mind which was in Christ ; so that the 
man, ceasing to serve sin, presents himself to 
God as a holy, living sacrifice ; — the continual 
enjoyment of the Holy Spirit's power, restrain- 
ing from sin, carrying on and completing the 
work of sanctification, and effectually helping 
the infirmities of the believer in all the duties 
of life ; — and the reception of divine grace to 
sustain and comfort the mind in every season 
of trial and affliction, producing humble and 
cheerful submission to the divine will, with a 
lively hope of heaven. 

Now I ask, what is there in all this that is 



88 A LETTER TO 

contrary to the doctrine of St, Paul ? When he 
says that "tribulation worketh patience, and 
patience experience," he speaks of one branch 
of that " experience" of which Christian believ- 
ers are the subjects ; the " experience" of the 
faithfulness, power, and mercy of God, and of 
the reality of their own piety, which they 
receive in seasons of " tribulation," when their 
faith and " patience" are put to the severest 
test ; but he certainly did not intend to deny 
religious " experience" in every other form. 
You cannot suppose, when he said that i; pa- 
tience worketh experience," he meant to con- 
tradict what he had just asserted, — * Being jus- 
tified by faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ : by whom also we have 
access by faith into this grace wherein we 
stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." 
When he himself was filled with penitential 
sorrow at Damascus, and then with peace and 
joy, and invested with the apostolic office, he 
had a lively " experience" of the divine good- 
ness, power, and mercy ; but that " experience" 
was greatly enlarged when, through a series of 
years, he endured weariness, hunger, cold, na- 
kedness, imprisonment, scourging, shipwreck, 
the unfaithfulness of friends, stoning, calumny, 
and bitter insult ; and yet was so strengthened 



','. EDWARD 13. PUSEY, D. D. 89 

and comforted by the grace of God, as to be 
able to pass through them all, not only without 
a murmur, but with joy and thanksgiving. " We 
glory in tribulation." You may assume, that if, 
by the grace of God, " patience work experi- 
ence" of one kind, the same grace, in imparting 
peace to the troubled conscience, and purity to 
the corrupted heart, does not produce it in an- 
other ; but St. Paul has said nothing of the kind. 
You may also represent the Wesleyans as 
talking about " experiences," (though the term 
is your own, not theirs,) and tell us that these, 
" if real, would be a revelation of God's love." 
Uncouth and perverse phraseology alters not 
the nature of things. Till the trumpet shall 
sound, the dead shall be raised, and the living 
shall be changed, it will remain an immutable 
truth, that " the kingdom of God" in man, " is not 
meat and drink ; but righteousness, and peace, 
and joy in the Holy Ghost;" (Rom. xiv, 17 ;) 
and that the true " circumcision" are the men 
" which worship God in spirit, and rejoice in 
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the 
flesh," Phil, iii, 3. " Righteousness, peace, 
and joy in the Holy Ghost,'' are indeed " feel- 
ings." You may pour contempt upon them 
under this name, and say that they imply a 
" revelation," or any thing else. According to 



90 A LETTER TO 

apostolic testimony, they constitute " the king- 
dom of God" upon earth. Nor are they a whit 
the less valuable because they are felt, but rather 
more so. The blessed God is pleased, in the 
fulness of his mercy, not only to exempt peni- 
tent believers from future wrath, but also to de- 
liver them from present misery. His ways are 
therefore pleasantness, and his paths are peace. 
But whatever reality there may be in reli- 
gious experience, as described in the Holy 
Scriptures, you insinuate, in terms sufficiently 
intelligible, that the Wesleyans have no part in 
this matter. If we may judge from your repre- 
sentations, their piety is not even dubious. It 
is either absolute delusion, or something worse. 
The following are some of your expressions in 
reference to that body of Christian people : — 
" The mind is worked up, until it lose its fear, 
and gain what it thinks an assurance of salva- 
tion." " It is too certain that in this way much 
dangerous self-deceit and unconscious hypocrisy 
has been fostered ; people being led to work 
themselves up to imagine that they had feelings 
equal in spirituality, or yet more spiritual than 
those of their neighbours, or inventing them 
when they could not. And this, unhappily, is 
almost essential to the system. Self-deceit 
must come in whenever the feelings are directly 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 91 

acted upon. People have, for a time at least, 
the power of exciting their own feelings, or mak- 
ing themselves for the time feel what they habitu- 
ally do not. And this, with the Wesley an, is the 
test of his faith." " Such a state, as being most- 
ly artificial, must be unreal." Instead of teaching 
men to look for the fruits of conversion in obe- 
dience to the commands of God, you say that 
Wesleyanism "sets men watching for certain 
feelings only, which unhappily man has it in 
his power, in a great degree, to produce in him- 
self without their being any criterion of his 
habitual state, or permanently influencing it, — 
except for evil, in drugging the conscience." 

Such is the estimate that you form of the re- 
ligious character of the people to whom the 
name of Wesleyan is applied. In the New 
Testament certain affections, principles, and 
dispositions are mentioned, which the Holy 
Spirit is said to produce in the hearts of Chris- 
tians, by an application to them of evangelical 
truth. These affections, principles, and dispo- 
sitions, by what names soever they may be 
called, the Wesleyan Methodists regard as es- 
sential to the true Christian character in every 
age and place ; so that, whatever may be a 
man's orthodoxy, his attention to the forms of 
religion, or the correctness of his morals, unless 



92 A LETTER TO 

he love God and all mankind, and unless he be 
spiritually minded, and pure in heart, he cannot 
be finally saved ; inasmuch as " without holi- 
ness no man shall see the Lord." The only 
way of attaining to personal holiness they be- 
lieve to be the exercise of faith in Christ ; faith 
preceded by repentance toward God, and con- 
sisting in an unfeigned trust in Christ, as the 
Mediator between God and sinful men. 

This has been' their doctrine from the begin- 
ning ; and not a few of them, at every period of 
their history, have expressed a persuasion that 
they had attained to this state. They have 
avowed their belief that they had received the 
Christian salvation, in the Scriptural method ; 
and their profession has been confirmed by an 
exemplary walk and conversation, at once con- 
sistent, pure, and upright. 

Without attempting to show that the Wes- 
leyans mistake the sense of Holy Scripture, 
you grievously misrepresent their views, con- 
temptuously stigmatize spiritual affections as 
mere " feelings," and, so far as the Wesleyans 
are concerned, declare those " feelings" to be 
" artificial," the offspring of " self-deceit," " un- 
conscious hypocrisy," and pride : for you tell 
us that these people " imagine that they have 
feelings more spiritual than their neighbours." 



REV. EDWARD B. PU8EV, D. D. 93 

There are more than a million of Christians 
now living, whose spirit and conduct are open 
to the inspection of all men, and of whom you 
have given this character ; and a far greater 
number of others have gone to their final ac- 
count. Among all these people it is probable 
that you have never conversed with fifty on the 
subject of personal religion, or whose general 
deportment through life you have been able to 
observe ; and yet you feel yourself at liberty, 
in this bold and sweeping manner, to declare 
what passes in their minds, and to deny their 
Christianity. Yes, to deny their Christianity ; 
for it is perfect mockery to add, as you do, 
" These things are not said as any reflection 
on the body ;" and " many good men are doubt- 
less entangled in" Wesley anism. If the Me- 
thodists are the men that you have affirmed 
them to be, they fall below honest heathens; 
for they are unconscious hypocrites and self- 
deceivers ; and what they call ' ; the fruit of the 
Spirit" consists of" certain feelings only, which 
unhappily" fallen " man has it in his power, in 
a great degree, to produce in himself." When 
the Wesleyans cannot " icork themselves up" so 
as to " imagine they have these feelings," you 
tell us, " they invent them" The most obvious 
meaning of these words is. that when the Me- 



94 A LETTER TO 

thodists cannot satisfy themselves that they 
have acquired the graces of the Christian cha- 
racter, they feign the possession of them, and 
thus profess themselves to be what they know 
they are not. I am not careful to answer these 
revilings ; and will only say, I trust there are 
no Wesleyans upon earth who will dare to 
speak of you as yon have spoken of them, and 
of their pious dead. The people whom you 
accuse, it is hoped, will practically remember 
Him " who when he was reviled, reviled not 
again." "The Lord be judge between them 
and you." May I be allowed, without offence, 
to remind you that "there is one Lawgiver, who 
is able to save and to destroy ;" and that it is 
his exclusive prerogative to " try the reins and 
the heart ?" You may affect a knowledge of 
all that passes between God and the souls of 
his Methodist worshippers, in all parts of the 
world ; but you have undertaken a task for 
which you are not qualified, and for which you 
have no authority. Of the outward actions of 
men you may lawfully form an opinion under 
the guidance of truth and charity ; but to place 
yourself in the judgment-seat, and pronounce 
the religious affections of millions of Christian 
people to be artificial and assumed, is an act 
which I will not attempt to characterize. I 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D. 95 

will only ask, " Who art thou that judges! an- 
other man's servant? to his own master he 
standeth or falleth." " Let all bitterness, and 
wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speak- 
ing, be put away from you, with all malice," 
Ephesians iv, 31. 

THE CHARGE OF ANTINOMIANISM. 

Antinomianism, or opposition to the law of 
God, whether in theory or in practice, is justly 
considered one of the foulest heresies that ever 
afflicted the church, and dishonoured the sa- 
cred cause of religion. This heresy you charge 
upon the Wesleyan body, and profess to state 
its origin, as well as to trace its development 
and effects, among them. Its principle, you 
say, is to be found in their doctrine of salvation 
by faith ; and to substantiate this allegation, as 
we have already seen, you invent and place to 
their account a doctrine on the subject which 
they never believed, and which they hold in 
righteous abhorrence. Now, sir, an invention 
of your own, placed to the account of the Wes- 
leyans, is a proof, not that they are heretical, 
but that you are unjust. Though you should 
impute to them this invention a thousand times, 
they will be as innocent as ever ; for there is 
not the slightest probability that they will ever 



96 A LETTER TO 

adopt it, while they retain any regard either for 
Scripture, or for common sense. Till you pro- 
duce something further, therefore, I must main- 
tain that the charge of heresy on the ground 
of doctrine entirely fails. As you adduce no 
proof, the defendants are entitled to a full ac- 
quittal. 

But you have not confined yourself to doc- 
trine. The practice of the Wesleyans you 
also declare to be in many respects lax, repre- 
hensible, and, in fact, Antinomian. Your alle- 
gations on this score shall be fully met, and the 
question then submitted to those who take an 
interest in its decision. 

You charge the Wesleyans with setting up 
a false test of acceptance with God, so that 
they judge of their spiritual state with little or 
no regard for relioious and moral duties. Of 
their theological system you say, " By substi- 
tuting another test of acceptance, it even takes 
people off from considering their practical du- 
ties toward God and man, and how they per- 
form these, which our Lord gives us as the test 
of our love for him : ' If ye love me, keep my 
commandments.' Instead of this, it sets them 
watching for certain feelings only." " The 
feelings, or the persuasion that a man is saved, 
are the test of his faith. He has no need then 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 97 

to examine himself, except as to this one pflint ; 
he may take it for granted that he is obedient, 
humble, meek, has all the ' fruits of the Spirit.' 
Since, then, life is a daily struggle against the 
powers of evil, since watchfulness is enjoined 
as essential, since habitual self-denial and bear- 
ing the cross is a test of our Lord's true disci- 
ples, how must such a system, in the end, be a 
delusion ?" Here again I join issue with you, 
and fearlessly aver that the Wesleyans hold no 
such doctrine of faith as you have imputed to 
them ; nor are they ever taught, as you have 
said, to disregard the duties of life in judging 
of their acceptance with God. They do indeed 
believe that there is a witness of the Holy Spi- 
rit, consequent upon faith in Christ, as St. Paul 
teaches, both in his Epistle to the Romans, and 
in that to the Galatians, and that this witness 
is direct and immediate ; but it is never alone. 
It is always preceded by unfeigned repentance, 
in the exercise of which sin in every form is 
confessed, lamented, and renounced ; and is 
immediately followed by purity of heart, and by 
obedience to all the will of God, so far as it is 
known and understood. Whatever you may 
assert, the Wesleyans acknowledge as a test 
of faith no " feelings" that are unconnected with 
holy tempers and an obedient life. In declar- 
7 



98 A LETTER TO 

inglhe contrary, you misrepresent their creed, 
and unjustly reproach their character. A man's 
state of trial does not cease when he obtains the 
forgiveness of his past sins, and is " accepted 
in the Beloved." To the end of life, says Mr. 
Wesley, " we are every moment either pleas- 
ing or displeasing to God, according to our 
works ; according to our inward tempers and 
outward behaviour." There is no subject on 
which he has expressed himself more distinctly 
and copiously than on this, as every candid 
reader of his Works will confess. One or two 
specimens shall be given. They will demon- 
strate the flagrant injustice of your censures. 

He has an admirable sermon, which he en- 
titles, " The Witness of our own Spirit," on the 
following text : — " This is our rejoicing, the 
testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity 
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, 
but by the grace of God, we have had our con- 
versation in the world," 2 Cor. i, 12. In dis- 
coursing on these words he says, " By * the 
grace of God' is sometimes to be understood 
that free love, that unmerited mercy, by which 
I a sinner, through the merits of Christ, am 
now reconciled to God. But in this place it 
rather means that power of God the Holy Ghost, 
which ' worketh in us both to will and to do of 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 99 

his good pleasure. 1 As soon as ever the grace 
of God in the former sense, his pardoning love, 
is manifested to our souls, the grace of God in 
the latter sense, the power of his Spirit, takes 
place therein. And now we can perform, 
through God, what to man was impossible. 
Now we can order our conversation aright. 
We can do all things in the light and power of 
that love, through which Christ strengtheneth 
us. We now have the testimony of our con- 
science, which we could never have by fleshly 
wisdom, that in simplicity and godly sincerity 
we have our conversation in the world. 

" This is properly the ground of a Christian's 
joy. We may now, therefore, readily conceive 
how he that hath this testimony in himself re- 
joiceth evermore. ' My soul,' may he say, 
1 doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth 
in God my Saviour.' I rejoice in him who, of 
his own unmerited love, of his own free and 
tender mercy, hath called me into this state of 
salvation, wherein, through his power, I now 
stand. I .rejoice, because his Spirit beareth 
witness to my spirit, that I am bought with the 
blood of the Lamb ; and that, believing in him, 
I am a member of Christ, a child of God, and 
an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. I re- 
joice, because the sense of God's love to me 



100 A LETTER TO 

hath, by the same Spirit, wrought in me to love 
him, and to love for his sake every child of 
man, every soul that he hath made. I rejoice, 
because he gives me to feel in myself the mind 
that was in Christ : — simplicity, a single eye to 
him in every motion of my heart ; power al- 
ways to fix the loving eye of my soul on Him 
who loved me, and gave himself for me ; to aim 
at him alone, at his glorious will, in all I think, 
or speak, or do : — purity, desiring nothing more 
but God ; crucifying the flesh with its affec- 
tions and lusts ; setting my affections on things 
above, not on things of the earth : — holiness, a 
recovery of the image of God, a renewal of soul 
after his likeness : — and godly sincerity, direct- 
ing all my words and works, so as to conduce 
to his glory In this I likewise rejoice ; yea, 
and will rejoice, because my conscience bear- 
eth me witness in the Holy Ghost, by the light 
he continually pours in upon it, that I walk 
worthy of the vocation wherewith I am called ; 
that I abstain from all appearance of evil, flee- 
ing from sin as from the face of a serpent ; that, 
as I have opportunity, I do all possible good, 
in every kind, to all men ; that I follow my 
Lord in all my steps, and do what is accepta- 
ble in his sight. I rejoice, because I both see 
nnd feel, through the inspiration of God's Holy 



REV. EDWARp B. PI 101 

Spirit, that all my works are wrought in him, 
yea, and that it is he w 7 ho worketh all my works 
in me. I rejoice in seeing through the light 
of God, which shines in my heart, that I have 
power to walk in his ways ; and that, through 
his grace, I turn not therefrom, to the right 
hand or to the left. 

" Such is the ground and the nature of that 
joy whereby an adult Christian rejoiceth ever- 
more. And from all this we may easily infer, 
first, that it is not a natural joy. It does not 
arise from any natural cause : not from any 
sudden flow of spirits. This may give a tran- 
sient start of joy ; but the Christian rejoiceth 
always. It cannot be owing to bodily health 
or ease, to strength and soundness of constitu- 
tion ; for it is equally strong in sickness and 
pain, yea, perhaps far stronger than before. 
Many Christians have never experienced any 
joy, to be compared with that which then filled 
their soul, when the body was well nigh worn 
out with pain, or consumed away with pining 
sickness. Least of all can it be ascribed to 
outward prosperity, to the favour of men, or 
plenty of worldly goods ; for then chiefly, when 
their faith has been tried as with fire, by all 
manner of outward afflictions, have the children 
of God rejoiced in him whom unseen they loved, 



102 A LETTER TO 

even with joy unspeakable. And never, surely, 
did men rejoice like those who were used as 
the filth and ofYscouring of the world ; who wan- 
dered to and fro, being in want of all things ; 
in hunger, in cold, in nakedness ; who had trials, 
not only of cruel mockings, but moreover of 
bonds and imprisonments ; yea, who, at last, 
counted not their lives dear unto themselves, 
so they might finish their course with joy. 

" We may, secondly, infer that the joy of a 
Christian does not arise from any blindness of 
conscience, from his not being able to discern 
good from evil. So far from it, that he was an 
utter stranger to this joy, till the eyes of his 
understanding were opened ; that he knew it 
not, until he had spiritual senses, fitted to discern 
spiritual good and evil. And now the eye of 
his soul waxeth not dim. He was never so 
sharp-sighted before. He has so quick a per- 
ception of the smallest things, as is quite amaz- 
ing to the natural man. As a mote is visible in 
the sunbeam, so to him who is walking in the 
light, in the beams of the uncreated Sun, every 
mote of sin is visible. Nor does he close the 
eyes of his conscience any more. That sleep 
is departed from him. His soul is always broad 
awake : no more slumber, or folding of the 
hands to rest ! He is always standing on the 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D. 103 

tower, and hearkening what his Lord will say 
concerning him ; and always rejoicing in this 
very thing, in seeing Him that is invisible. 

" Neither does the joy of a Christian arise, 
thirdly, from any dulness or callousness of con- 
science. A kind of joy, it is true, may arise 
from this, in those whose foolish hearts are 
darkened ; whose heart is callous, unfeeling, 
dull of sense, and consequently without spiritual 
understanding. Because of their senseless, 
unfeeling hearts, they may rejoice even in com- 
mitting sin ; and this they may probably call 
liberty ! which is indeed mere drunkenness of 
soul, a fatal numbness of spirit, the stupid in- 
sensibility of a seared conscience. On the con- 
trary, a Christian has the most exquisite sensi- 
bility, such as he could not have conceived 
before. He never had such a tenderness of 
conscience as he has had since the love of 
God has reigned in his heart. And this also 
is his glory and joy, that God hath heard his 
daily prayer, — 

* O that my tender soul might fly 
The first abhorr'd approach of ill ; 
Quick as the apple of an eye, 
The slightest touch of sin to feel V 

" Christian joy is joy in obedience ; joy in 
loving God, and keeping his commandments : 



104 A LETTER TO 

and yet not in keeping them as if we were thereby 
to fulfil the terms of the covenant of works ; as if 
by any works of ours we were to procure par- 
don and acceptance with God. Not so ; we 
are already pardoned and accepted through the 
mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Not as if we 
were by our own obedience to procure life, life 
from the death of sin : this also we have 
already through the grace of God. Us hath he 
quickened, who were dead in sins ; and now 
we are alive to God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. But we rejoice in walking according to 
the covenant of grace, in holy love and happy 
obedience. We rejoice in knowing that, being 
justified through his grace, we have not receiv- 
ed the grace of God in vain ; that God having 
freely (not for the sake of our willing or 
running, but through the blood of the Lamb) 
reconciled us to himself, we run, in the strength 
which he hath given us, the way of his com- 
mandments. He hath girded us with strength 
unto the war, and we gladly ' fight the good 
fight of faith.' "* 

You tell your readers that the Wesleyan 
doctrine supersedes the necessity of watchful- 
ness, striving against sin, self-denial, and taking 
up the cross. What think you then of the fol- 
* Wesley's Works, vol. i, pp. 105-107. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 105 

lowing remarks on these subjects, extracted 
from Mr. Wesley's sermon on " Self-denial ?" 
His voluminous Works abound with passages 
of a similar kind. "The denying ourselves, 
and the taking up our cross, in the full extent 
of the expression, is not a thing of small con- 
cern. It is not expedient only, as are some of the 
circumstantials of religion ; but it is absolutely, 
indispensably necessary, either to our becom- 
ing or continuing His disciples. It is absolutely 
necessary, in the very nature of the thing, to 
our coming after him, and following him ; in- 
somuch that, as far as we do not practise it, we 
are not his disciples. If we do not continually 
deny ourselves, we do not learn of him, but of 
other masters. If we do not take up our cross 
daily, we do not come after him, but after the 
world, or the prince of the world, or our own 
fleshly mind. If we are not walking in the 
way of the cross, we are not following him ; 
we are not treading in his steps ; but going 
back from, or at least wide of him." 

" But what is self-denial ? Wherein are we 
to deny ourselves ? and whence does the ne- 
cessity of it arise ? I answer, The will of God 
is the supreme unalterable rule of every intelli- 
gent creature; equally binding on every angel 
in heaven, and every man upon earth. Nor can 



106 A LETTER TO 

it be otherwise : this is the natural, necessary 
result of the relation between creatures and 
their Creator. But if the will of God be our 
rule of action in every thing, great and small, it 
follows, by undeniable consequence, that we 
are not to do our own will in any thing. Here, 
therefore, we see at once the nature with the 
ground and reason of self-denial. We see the 
nature of self-denial : it is the denying or 
refusing to follow our own will, from a convic- 
tion that the will of God is the only rule of 
action to us. And we see the reason thereof, 
because we are creatures : because ' it is he 
that hath made us, and not we ourselves.' 

" This reason for self-denial must hold, even 
with regard to the angels of God in heaven ; 
and with regard to man, innocent and holy as 
he came out of the hands of his Creator. But 
a further reason for it arises from the condition 
wherein all men are since the fall. We are all 
now ' shapen in wickedness, and in sin did our 
mother conceive us.' Our nature is altogether 
corrupt, in every power and faculty. And our 
will, depraved equally with the rest, is wholly 
bent to indulge our natural corruption. On the 
other hand, it is the will of God that we resist 
and counteract that corruption, not at some 
times or in some things only, but at all times 



REV. EDWARD B. PU8EV, D. D. 107 

and in all things. Here, therefore, is a further 
ground for constant and universal self-denial." 

" It is undoubtedly pleasing, for the time, to 
follow our own will, by indulging, in any in- 
stance that offers, the corruption of our nature. 
But by following it in any thing, we so far 
strengthen the perverseness of our will ; and by 
indulging it, we continually increase the cor- 
ruption of our nature. So, by the food which 
is agreeable to the palate, we often increase a 
bodily disease. It gratifies the taste, but it in- 
flames the disorder. It brings pleasure, but it 
also brings death. 

" And every one that would follow Christ, 
that would be his real disciple, must not only 
deny himself, but take up his cross also. A 
cross is any thing contrary to our will, any- 
thing displeasing to our nature. So that taking 
up our cross goes a little further than denying 
ourselves : it rises a little higher, and is a more 
difficult task to flesh and blood : it being more 
easy to forego pleasure than to endure pain. 

" Now, in running the race that is set before 
us, according to the will of God, there is often 
a cross lying in the way ; that is, something 
which is not only not joyous, but grievous : some- 
thing which is contrary to our will, which is 
displeasing to our nature. What then is to be 



108 A LETTER TO 

done ? The choice is plain. Either we must 
take up our cross, or We must turn aside from 
the way of God, ' from the holy commandment 
delivered to us ;' if we do not stop altogether, 
or turn back to everlasting perdition ! 

"In order to the healing of that corruption, that 
evil disease, which every man brings with him 
into the world, it is often needful to pluck out, as 
it were, a right eye, to cut off a right hand : so 
painful is either the thing itself which must be 
done, or the only means of doing it; the parting, 
suppose, with a foolish desire, with an inordi- 
nate affection ; or a separation from the object 
of it, without which it can never be extinguish- 
ed. In the former kind, the tearing away such 
a desire or affection, when it is deeply rooted 
in the soul, is often like the piercing of a 
sword, yea, like the ' dividing asunder of the 
soul and spirit, the joints and marrow.' The 
Lord then sits upon the soul as a refiner's fire, 
to burn up all the dross thereof. And this is a 
cross indeed ; it is essentially painful ; it must 
be so in the very nature of the thing. The soul 
cannot be thus torn asunder, it cannot pass 
through the fire without pain." 

" See that you apply this, every one of you, 
to your own soul. Meditate upon it when you 
are in secret. Ponder it in your heart ! Take 






REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. lOt) 

care not only to understand it thoroughly, but 
to remember it to your lives' end ! Cry unto 
the Strong for strength, that you may no sooner 
understand, than enter upon the practice of it ! 
Delay not the time, but practise it immediately, 
from this very hour ! Practise it universally, 
on every one of the thousand occasions which 
occur in all circumstances of life ! Practise it 
daily, without intermission, from the hour you 
first set your hand to the plough, and enduring 
therein to the end^ till your spirit returns to 
God!"* 

The subject is now before the reader ; and 
an appeal is made to the understanding and 
conscience of every competent judge, whether 
your charge is not absolutely unfounded, and 
therefore unjust. " Wesleyanism," you say, 
gives such "a test of acceptance" as K takes 
people off from consideringtheir practical duties 
toward God and man." Mr. Wesley states 
that, although " acceptance" is, in the first in- 
stance, obtained by faith only ; yet this faith is 
invariably followed both by inward and outward 
holiness ; and that no man, who lives in the 
commission of any known sin, or in the neglect 
of any known duty, is either accepted of God, 
or has any Scriptural " test" or " assurance" of 

* Wesley's Works, vol. i, pp. 428, 429, 433. 



110 A LETTER TO 

acceptance. If he imagine that he has, he only 
deceives his own soul. Justifying faith does 
not find men holy, but it makes them so, by se- 
curing to them the gift of the Holy Spirit, in 
his fulness of comforting and regenerating 
power ; and hence there is no true faith but 
that which is connected with a sincere and 
practical hatred to all sin, and with obedience 
to the commands of God. Here then is another 
direct and tangible contradiction between the 
doctrine of Mr. Wesley, as stated by himself, 
and your report concerning it. The conclusion 
is inevitable : you have again said the thing 
that is not. 

It is true, the gospel unfolds the provision 
which the God of all grace has made for the 
recovery of backsliders, who have lost that 
peace of conscience which they once enjoyed ; 
so that their forfeited happiness may be re- 
covered. But what then ? This doctrine, as 
held by the Wesley an body, affords no encour- 
agement to any laxity of morals, or in religious 
duty, as you more than insinuate. It sets the 
offenders not upon " watching for certain feel- 
ings," as you are pleased to say, but solemnly 
charges them to " remember from whence they 
have fallen ;" and then to " repent, and do the 
first works;" and never to dream of comfort in 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. Ill 

a state of lukewarmness and sin. If they could 
recover their forfeited peace in the Antinomian 
manner that you describe, (which we absolutely 
deny,) what have they gained ? According to 
the Wesleyan doctrine, they could not enjoy 
that peace a single hour in the neglect of obe- 
dience to the commandments of God. Every 
man that is living in wilful disobedience to the 
divine will, let him profess what he may, 
Wesleyanism declares, on the authority of 
Holy Scripture, to be under the wrath of God, 
and in the way to perdition. As there is no 
joy in the absence of obedience, so there is no 
safety when any precept of God is disregarded. 
You exclaim, with great apparent serious- 
ness : " Since, then, life is a daily struggle 
against the powers of evil, since watchfulness 
is enjoined as essential, since habitual self-de- 
nial and bearing the cross is a test of our Lord's 
true disciples, how must such a system" as that 
of Wesleyanism, " in the end, be a delusion !" 
No, sir, after what we have just seen of Mr. 
Wesley's sentiments, this conclusion cannot 
be admitted. Justice, truth, and honour, put 
the matter thus : — " Since life is a daily strug- 
gle against the powers of evil, since watchful- 
ness is enjoined as assential, since habitual 
self-denial and bearing the cross is a test of 



112 A LETTER TO 

our Lord's true disciples," — and since no man 
ever enforced these duties with greater earnest- 
ness, consistency, and success than John Wes- 
ley, — and since the people who bear his name 
have not departed a hair's breadth from the 
tenets which he taught them from God's own 
inspired word, — how lamentably must the re- 
gius professor of Hebrew in the University of 
Oxford have forgotten the respect which was 
due to his own character, as well as to the dead 
and the living, when he told the archbishop of 
Canterbury, and the people of England, that the 
venerable John Wesley and his people virtually 
set aside these sacred duties of Christianity ! 

But whether the Wesleyans are Antinomians 
or not, in respect of " daily struggling against 
evil," " watchfulness," " self-denial," and "bear- 
ing the cross," you declare that they are so 
with respect to the Christian sacraments. You 
say, " The means of grace are with them, not 
the sacraments, but the class-meeting, bands, 
love-feasts ;" and that in this matter they act in 
accordance with their principles ; for the doc- 
trine which they have received " substitutes 
practically the feelings and experiences for 
repentance, good works, and the sacraments." 
These are strong words, and imply that the 
Wesleyans have altogether abandoned baptism 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 113 

and the Lord's supper. A stranger, who knew 
nothing of them but what he learned from your 
pamphlet, would infer that they have discarded 
the sacraments as much as the Quakers have 
done. Whether you intended to make this 
impression, or only meant that the Wesleyans 
are generally indifferent to these ordinances of 
Christ, I know not ; but this statement, when 
interpreted in the most favourable sense, is 
notoriously at variance with fact. 

Far be it from me to say, that all the mem- 
bers of the Wesley an societies have always 
shown a due regard for the Christian sacra- 
ments, or that they even do so at this day. 
Where indeed can we find a large body of 
Christian people, however pious the greater part 
of them may be, of whom this can be affirmed ? 
One of the churches that were planted by 
apostolic labour, and generally governed by 
apostolic men, was subjected to severe official 
rebuke for the manner in which they acted 
with respect to the supper of the Lord. But 
this I will maintain, in opposition to your un- 
just and sweeping censures, that the Wesley- 
ans, as a body, have all regarded the sacra- 
ments as " means of grace," and as universally 
binding upon the church till the end of time ; 
and that many of the instances of irregular 



1 14 A LETTER TO 

attendance upon the holy communion, which 
have occurred among them, have been rather 
the misfortune than the fault of the parties con- 
cerned. An honest reference to the history of 
the Wesleyans, with respect to this subject, 
will set the matter in a just light. 

Soon after the first Methodist societies were 
formed, the bishop of Bristol told Mr. Wesley, 
that he had heard with regret that he and his 
brother administered the Lord's supper to their 
people, separately. Mr. Wesley answered, 
that they had never done this, and he believed 
they never should. In the course of a few 
months, however, he and his brother were com- 
pelled to submit to that which had formed no part 
of their previous design. The clergy in Bris- 
tol entered into a general agreement to refuse 
the Lord's supper to the two Wesleys, and to 
the people connected with them. One princi- 
pal reason assigned for this resolution was, 
that the amount of clerical labour was very in- 
conveniently increased by the numerous com- 
municants whom the indefatigable brothers 
sent to the different churches. Accordingly, 
when Mr. Charles Wesley, accompanied by 
several converted colliers, offered himself at 
the sacramental table in one of the Bristol 
churches on the morning of the Lord's day, 






REV. EDWARD B. PI/SKY, D. D. 115 

they were all refused the memorials of their 
Saviour's death, and peremptorily commanded 
to leave the place. The Methodist clergyman, 
who appeared in his gown, mildly remonstrated; 
but the officiating minister called upon the au- 
thorities present, to clear the sacred edifice of 
these unwelcome guests, who had presented 
themselves at the holy feast. Under these cir- 
cumstances, Mr. Charles Wesley took these 
humble and despised men to a room which had 
been built in Kingswood for the education.of 
the colliers' children, and there administered to 
them the supper of the Lord. This w r as the origin 
of separate communion among the Methodists. 
The clergy in Bristol were not the only men 
who repelled the Methodists from the Lord's 
table. Their brethren in Leeds, Wakefield, 
Derbyshire, and some other places, did the 
same ; so that their Methodist parishioners 
were greatly distressed. One of them, writing 
from Chinley, to the Rev. Charles Wesley, 
says, under date of 1745, " The ministers of the 
Church persecute with all their strength. The 
society are some miles from the church. They 
have a desire to know whether you or your 
brother, once or twice in a year, would not de- 
liver them the sacrament. As to my own soul, 
I am weakened much for want of partaking of 



1 16 A LKTTER TO 

the ordinance ; and the minister of Chapel-en- 
le-Frith flatly denies me the sacrament ; and 
has ordered me and some others to be put out 
of the church. Dear sir, consider these things 
well, and let me have your answer speedily."* 
An urgent and affecting application like this, 
(and it was only one among many,) viewed in 
connection with what occurred in Bristol and 
Kingswood, is a decisive refutation of your 
statement, that these Christian people " substi- 
tuted" their own "feelings" for the " sacra- 
ments," and disregarded them as being no 
"means of grace." 

After the holy communion had been thus in- 
troduced into Kingswood, it was administered 
in the Methodist chapels in Bristol and in Lon- 
don, and was continued there as long as the 
brothers lived. Mr. Charles Wesley was ge- 
nerally resident in one or the other of these 
cities from the year 1753 till 1788, when he 
died ; and he was accustomed to administer the 
Lord's supper weekly. He composed a volume 
of hymns for sacramental occasions, which were 
so acceptable to the societies, that they passed 
through several editions during his life. It is 
doubtful whether any congregation of Christians 
could be mentioned, who have frequented the 
* Life of Rev. Charles Wesley, p. 331. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D, 117 

Lord's table with greater regularity and more 
sincere devotion, than the people who attended 
the ministrations of this gifted man. While 
the Wesleyan societies in London and Bristol 
were thus favoured, their brethren in other 
places were mostly exhorted to receive the 
Lord's supper in their several parish churches. 
But in some places the clergy were immoral in 
their lives ; in others they were intolerant, 
preached against their Wesleyan parishioners, 
and even refused to give them the holy com- 
munion. Hence great uneasiness often arose. 
The societies did not, as you say, deny that the 
sacraments are " means of grace ;" but they 
earnestly requested the administration of them 
by their own preachers, who had been the in- 
struments of their conversion, and to whose 
pastoral* oversight they willingly submitted. 
This request Mr. Wesley refused, from a desire 
to preserve them in union with the established 
Church ; but he often refused, as he confesses, 
with a doubting conscience ; for while he could 
himself receive the Lord's supper at the hands 
of an ungodly man, he confessed his inability 
to answer the reasons of his spiritual children, 
who declared that they could not. His people ge- 
nerally did not " substitute their own feelings for 
the sacraments," but desired to receive them at 



118 A LETTER TO 

the hands of spiritual men, with whom they could 
have sanctifying fellowship in these the most 
sacred of all their acts of devotion. This desire 
was sometimes irrepressible, and formed one of 
the greatest difficulties that Mr. Wesley met with 
in the regulation of his people. About the mid- 
dle of the last century, nearly the whole of the 
important society in Leeds separated themselves 
from him, and formed themselves into an inde- 
pendent church, principally on this account. 
Many of the Methodists in Halifax, and in 
several other places, soon after followed their 
example : — such was the earnestness of their 
desire to receive the sacraments with devotion 
and regularity. 1 * 

While Mr. John Wesley lived, some of the 
members of his societies received the Lord's 
supper in their respective churches, especially 
where the ministers were tolerant and friendly ; 
not a few of them constantly travelled several 
miles to receive it at the hands of clergymen 
who were known to be pious, and who preach- 
ed the truth with faithfulness and zeal : others 
received it in dissenting chapels : and others 
again seldom or never received it, especially 
where the clergy were hostile, or immoral, or 

* These cases are largely detailed in the Life of the Rev. 
Charles Wesley, 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 119 

refused to administer it to them. Mr. Wesley 
saw that this state of things could not be per- 
manently maintained ; and that it was, in fact, 
undesirable : for many of his spiritual children 
had left him on this account, and had become 
strict dissenters. He therefore ordained seve- 
ral of his preachers for the purpose of adminis- 
tering the sacraments ; directing them, however, 
to depart from the order of the established 
Church as little as possible ; yet maintaining 
a due regard for the spiritual interests of the 
people. After his death, the call for the sacra- 
ments in the chapels became so loud and ur- 
gent, that the conference was necessitated to 
consent to the administration : a case for which 
Mr. Wesley had actually made provision. It 
may convey to many persons some idea of the 
feeling which then existed, when they are told 
that the document which the conference put 
forth, conceding the boon which many of 
the societies had long desired, was entitled, 
" The Plan of Pacification." It is true, the 
sacraments were not the only boon which was 
then conceded ; but in the general estimation 
they were viewed, in connection with divine 
service in the forenoon of the Lord's day, as by 
far the most important benefit that was then 
demanded. 



120 A LETTER TO 

Now, sir, these are undeniable historic tacts, 
which no ingenuity can disprove ; and the 
bearing of them upon our present argument can- 
not be evaded. They demonstrate the injus- 
tice of your charge. These are not the acts 
of men who " substitute their own feelings for 
the sacraments," and who refuse to regard 
these sacred ordinances of Christ as " means 
of grace." Those of the Wesleyans who could 
receive the Lord's supper in their own chapels, 
from the beginning thankfully and devoutly 
availed themselves of the privilege ; and those 
societies to whom this was denied were gene- 
rally restless and uneasy till it was conceded ; 
for they felt that to " eat of that bread and drink 
of that cup" was the command of their dying 
Lord, which it was at once their duty and ad- 
vantage to obey. And such are the convictions 
of the great body of the Wesleyans at the pre- 
sent time. They faithfully attend the sacra- 
ments, in their own chapels, and that to their 
comfort and edification. Not a few of the so- 
cieties are in this respect examples of godly 
seriousness and order. I have witnessed the 
administration of the Lord's supper in many 
churches, and in some dissenting chapels ; but 
have never seen greater decorum at this sacred 
ordinance, nor more satisfactory indications of 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 121 

devout feeling, than in the great majority of 
Wesleyan congregations. Instances of inat- 
tention and indifference among them indeed 
there may be ; but they are met by affectionate 
warning and admonition. Nor is it at all sur- 
prising that cases of this kind should occur, 
considering the profligacy and total ignorance 
of divine things in which Methodism found 
multitudes of the people whom it has succeeded 
in turning from the error of their way. Think 
of the mental state of a man who has lived to 
be thirty or forty years of age, (yet immortal 
and redeemed !) and has never been either 
taught to read, or accustomed to attend divine 
worship. In this state Methodism found im- 
mense masses of the people of England ; and 
what wonder is it if some of them, even when 
brought under religious influence and training, 
fail at once to come up to such a " ripeness" in 
knowledge and grace, that there shall not be 
found among them either error or fault 1 They 
are rather to be patiently instructed, encouraged, 
and urged forward in the ways of God, than 
scornfully reproached, and pointed at, as per- 
sons who are destitute of all spiritual and moral 
good. I have generally ascertained, on exami- 
nation, that most of the people of this class, 
who absent themselves from the table of the 



122 A LETTER TO 

Lord, are actuated by a misleading fear lest 
they should eat and drink " unworthily," and 
so as to expose themselves to " damnation." 

But you have stated a case which you say 
came under, your own notice, and which you 
seem to think confirms your allegations against 
the Methodists generally. Your words are, 
" The writer has known such a meeting" 
(" class-meeting, bands, love-feasts") " prefer- 
red by a body of Wesleyans to the holy com- 
munion, where this could not have been cele- 
brated for nearly a year in a language which 
they understood, and there was no prospect of 
its being again for some time administered. 
' We relate our feelings' was the uniform an- 
swer to his inquiry as to the subject of their 
class meetings." Allow me to say, that the 
matter may have been exactly as you state, and 
yet your charge against the Wesleyans gene- 
rally, and even against the people whom you 
have here mentioned, is far from being sub- 
stantiated. They may have acted as you say 
they did, and yet have been deeply impressed 
with the sacredness of the Lord's supper, and 
their own obligations to attend it. There are 
several other points connected with your narra- 
tive which must be explained before we can 
adopt your conclusion. Was the Lord's supper. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 123 

which these people declined to attend, adminis- 
tered in their own place of worship or in the 
church ? If in the church, was the officiating 
minister a man of correct morals ? Was he of 
a tolerant, meek, and benevolent spirit ? or was 
he in the habit of preaching against them, im- 
puting to them tenets which not one of them 
believed, and practices which they held in 
righteous detestation ? Had he refused the 
ordinary rites of burial to their dead, so as to 
compel them either to read the funeral service 
in the public street, or to seek a resting-place 
for their fathers and mothers, or their beloved 
children, wherever they could find one 1 Had 
he secured the dismissal of any of them from 
the situations which they held, and the duties 
of which they discharged with acknowledged 
fidelity, because they were members of the 
Wesleyan society ? I could relate to you some 
sad instances of this kind, but would rather that 
the very remembrance of them should be for 
ever obliterated. If in all these respects his 
own conduct was unexceptionable, and becom- 
ing a minister of Christ, what was that of the 
other communicants ? Were none of them 
sabbath-breakers, profane swearers, or intempe- 
rate persons ? These are not trifling or cap- 
tious questions ; for an apostle has said, " If 



124 A LETTER TO 

any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, 
or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a 
drunkard, or an extortioner ; with such a 
one no not to eat," 1 Cor. v, 11. "Now we 
command you, brethren, in the name of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves 
from every brother that walketh disorderly, and 
not after the tradition which ye received of 
us," 2 Thess. iii, 6. These Wesleyans might 
have had conscientious scruples against uniting 
with ungodly men in the very sacred act of 
receiving the appointed symbols of redeem- 
ing mercy ; or their spirits may have been 
chafed by harsh treatment which they had not 
merited. 

There is something really mysterious in your 
account. You say that the Lord's supper 
" could not have been celebrated for nearly a 
year in a language which" these people " un- 
derstood." Do you mean that this sacrament 
had not been administered in the church for 
twelve months ? If so, it would seem that the 
Wesleyans are not the only people that are in- 
different to this sacred ordinance. Pray what 
had the pastor and his flock during this time 
" substituted" for this very important " means of 
grace ?" Had they substituted religious " feel- 
ing," or something that was less commendable ? 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 125 

But why " could not" these Methodists have 
received the Lord's supper in less than " a 
year ?" I have known " a body of Wesleyans," 
who were accustomed to hard labour during the 
week, and to whom the rest of the sabbath was 
indeed a relief and a blessing, cheerfully walk 
six or eight miles on that day to receive 
the supper of the Lord at the hands of a pious 
clergyman. For any thing that you have 
shown to the contrary, the persons whom you 
have censured might have done the same many 
times in the course of that " year," although 
unknown to you, or they might have received 
it in one of their own chapels. 

There is another part of your account which 
greatly needs explanation. You hint at the 
administration of the Lord's supper " in a lan- 
guage" which these Wesleyans did not " under- 
stand." What is the " unknown tongue" here 
referred to 1 Surely you do not mean that the 
Wesleyans might attend the Latin service of 
the Church of Rome, and receive at the hands 
of her priesthood what they administer as the 
supper of the Lord ! My hope is perfect, that 
there is not a Wesley an in England who would 
receive the consecrated wafer as the body, soul, 
and divinity of the Son of God, and, after wor- 
shipping it as such, eat it ; and call this the 



126 A LETTER TO 

communion of the body and blood of Christ : 
thus committing the double sin of idolatry, and 
of omitting the u cup of blessing," while the 
Lord himself says, " Drink ye all of it." " This 
is not to eat the Lord's supper." 

The sum of the matter is this : Your decla- 
ration, that the Wesleyan Methodists " substi- 
tute feelings for the sacraments," and that in 
their estimation " the sacraments are not means 
of grace," is notoriously at variance with fact. 
The conduct of the particular " body of Wes- 
leyans" whom you mention may have been 
seriously reprehensible ; or it may not. In the 
absence of full information, no sentence can be 
justly pronounced either way. 

Before we leave this subject I will take the 
liberty of observing, that, with respect to the 
sacraments, there is danger both on the right 
hand and on the left. It is a sin, a grievous 
sin, to neglect these ordinances of Christ, jto 
think lightly of them, or to celebrate them with 
formality, indifference, and levity; and it is no 
less a sin to substitute them for " the inward 
and spiritual grace" of which they are in them- 
selves only the " outward and visible signs." 
In consequence of the corruption of human 
nature through the fall, the Lord Jesus has de- 
clared, in terms the most express and solemn, 



REV. KDWAKJ) B. PUSEY, D.D. 127- 

the absolute and universal necessity of a great 
moral change in every man. " Verily, verily, 
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he 
cannot see the kingdom of God." " Verily, 
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born 
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God," John iii, 3, 5. From the 
manner in which this change is spoken of in 
other parts of the New Testament, we learn 
that it consists in the recovery of fallen man to 
personal holiness, so that he " doeth righteous- 
ness," " overcometh the world," and " doth not 
commit sin," 1 John ii, 29 ; v, 4, 5 ; iii, 9. 
The author of this momentous change is the 
Spirit of God ; and hence those who are the 
subjects of it are said to be " born of the Spi- 
rit," and " born from above." 

Our blessed Saviour has also said, " Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh 
of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have 
no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and 
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will 
raise him up at. the last day." John vi, 53, 54. 
In these deep and expressive words, it has 
been often shown, he speaks not of the holy 
supper, which was not instituted when this dis- 
course was delivered; but of his death, as a 
sacrifice for sin, and of faith in that sacrifice, 



128 A LETTER TO 

as the only means of life and salvation to fallen 
men. 

There are parties who declare that the new 
birth is necessarily connected with baptism, 
when rightly administered; and who assert, 
that no new birth is ever to be expected but in 
that ordinance. The same parties speak of the 
Lord's supper as a " sacrifice ;" of the admin- 
istrator, as a sacrificing u priest ;" and describe 
him as actually giving the body and blood of 
Christ to the communicants : so that, irrespec- 
tive of the state of their own minds, and 
whether they have faith or not, they really eat 
the flesh and drink the bleod of Christ in re- 
ceiving the consecrated elements. The fact, 
however, is, that millions of baptized persons 
are living in open sin, presenting not one single 
mark of the new birth, as specified in holy 
Scripture, any more than a Jew, a Mohammed- 
an, or a heathen ; and the same remark will 
apply to multitudes who have often received 
the Lord's supper. They are proud, revenge- 
ful, worldly, intemperate, unjust, bearing no 
resemblance to the Lord Jesus, either in 
their spirit or general conduct. Yet these 
people are taught, that because they have 
been baptized, they are born again ; and 
because they have taken the sacramental 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 129 

bread and wine, after due consecration, they 
have eaten the body and drunk the blood of 
Christ ; so that in point of fact, they "have eter- 
nal life, and shall be raised up at the last day." 
By such an abuse of the sacraments men are 
deceived to their everlasting ruin. Baptism is 
put in the place of the life-giving and sanctify- 
ing Spirit of God ; and the Lord's supper in the 
place of the Lord himself : so that men who 
are impenitent, unbelieving, unholy, imagine 
themselves to be the children of God, and heirs 
of heaven, till they lift up their eyes in unex- 
pected misery, and find that misery to be endless 
and irretrievable. The sacraments, when rightly 
used, are indeed " means of grace ;" but they 
are not necessarily connected with salvation. 
Simon Magus was baptized, yet almost immedi- 
ately after, an apostle declared him to be " in 
the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of ini- 
quity,'' and solemnly charged him to "repent 
of his wickedness," Acts viii, 13, 22, 23. 
Many an infidel has received the Lord's supper ; 
yet the Lord has absolutely declared, "He that 
belie veth not shall be damned," Mark xvi, 16. 
" Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor 
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor 
abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, 
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, 
9 



130 A LETTER TO 

shall inherit the kingdom of God," 1 Cor. vi, 
9, 10. No exception is made in behalf of the 
self-deceivers who have been baptized, and 
have received the Lord's supper, and yet prac- 
tise these evils: and their teachers, who thus 
mislead them, incur the most fearful responsi- 
bility. Having encouraged their disciples to 
rest in the form of godliness, without its power, 
they will, in the great day of the Lord, be an- 
swerable for the souls that have for ever perish- 
ed through this antichristian doctrin^ The 
sacraments are eminently " means of grace" 
when used according to the divine will ; but to 
substitute them for repentance, faith, and holi- 
ness, is one of the most destructive errors that 
was ever introduced into the church of God. It 
is a subversion of the whole gospel of Christ ; 
and is the more fatally misleading because it 
affects to honour Christ's ordinances. 

But you accuse the Wesleyan body of Anti- 
nomianism, not merely on account of their al- 
leged indifference to the sacraments, but also on 
the score of their religious and moral conduct, 
which you declare to be formed according to a 
false rule. Your words are, — "The Wesleyan 
standard of morals and holiness is, of necessity, 
low. The state of their feelings, not God's 
commandments, is the standard whereby they 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 131 

try themselves." If it be a fact, that, they take 
their own " feelings" as the " standard" of duty, 
their " standard" must be " low" indeed. But 
this is not true. The man who makes such an 
assertion knows them not, if he believes his 
own statement. It is acknowledged, that nei- 
ther with respect to "morals" nor "holiness" 
are the Wesleyans what they ought to be, con- 
sidering the high religious advantages which 
they enjoy, in regard of doctrine, discipline, 
and spiritual helps. Their " morals," however, 
so far as general society is concerned, are no 
secret. They are known to the magistracy, 
they are known to the people, of England. 
The Wesleyan societies have, from the begin- 
ning, mostly consisted of the labouring poor ; 
and their conduct has been open to the public 
inspection for more than a century. During 
this period many seasons of political agitation, 
strife, and public pressure have occurred ; riots 
have taken place ; life, property, the national 
institutions, have all been in peril. Who have 
been the leaders and most active agents in 
these scenes of disorder and mischief? and who 
have been among the quiet in the land ? Who 
are the criminals that find employment for the 
police, for the magistrates and judges ? Who 
are the men that are subjected to the various 



132 A LETTER TO 

forms of prison discipline, sent to penal settle- 
ments, or die by the hand of public justice ? 
The criminal code of England, till a late period, 
was sufficiently sanguinary, and executions 
were frequent. Pray, sir, how many Wesleyans, 
who were really recognised as such, have you 
known among these unhappy victims of the law ? 
And if the sufferers were not Wesleyans, who 
were they ? I wish you could be prevailed upon 
to give an explicit answer to these questions. 

Before the Wesleys entered upon their itine- 
rant labours, Cornwall was one of the most un- 
godly and immoral counties in England. " Wes- 
leyanisirT has taken a deeper hold upon the 
people generally, in the mining districts of that 
county, and exerts a wider influence upon them, 
than upon the population in any other part of 
the kingdom. In Cornwall, at this time, there 
is less crime than in any other English county, 
considering the number of inhabitants. Is this 
a proof that " Wesleyanism" is immoral in its 
tendency ? and that it is " developing itself " in a 
form even " worse than open Antinomianism ?" 
Are the people of Cornwall restrained from 
evil by their " feelings" only, in utter disregard 
of " God's commandments ?" Are they not 
rather imbued with his fear, and thus induced 
to stand in awe of his authority ? Excuse 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 133 

me, sir, if I request an answer also to these 
inquiries. 

But whatever may be the public conduct of 
the Wesleyans, and however successful they 
may be in keeping themselves out of the hands 
of constables, and other officers of justice still 
more to be dreaded, you give us to understand 
that their " private" " morals" are bad enough. 
Here is the proof. " In more private cases," 
you say, " persons of no very strict lives have 
been able to profess that they have been with- 
out a sinful thought for weeks together ; others, 
for even twenty years." Now, sir, admitting 
that what you here state really occurred, what 
does it prove ; except that some persons, con- 
nected with the Wesleyans, — but whether 
young or old, sane or insane, does not appear, 
— " have been able" to say a very foolish thing 1 
But, to tell you the truth, I do not believe a 
word of this statement. I know something of 
the people whom you are so anxious to depre- 
ciate ; but I never heard any one of them give 
utterance to such a sentiment ; and I think that 
those who give implicit credit to the tale must 
have a considerable appetite for idle gossip. I 
confess I can scarcely believe my own senses, 
when I see such pitiful tattle gravely published 
by a learned professor of the University of Ox- 



134 A LETTER TO 

ford, and addressed to the highest ecclesiastical 
personage in the land ! Surely you thought the 
archbishop of Canterbury greatly needed some- 
thing to occupy his attention, when you laid 
this silly story before him in a printed form ! 
However, if you think the matter sufficiently 
important, you can produce the names and 
residences of the parties ; and I pledge myself 
that the subject shall then have all the attention 
that it really deserves. 

You go on to state, that " persons esteemed 
sober-minded among them have held, that by 
one act of faith a person may become perfectly 
sanctified ; and that it is the privilege of believ- 
ers, whenever they choose, to claim it." I can 
assure you, sir, that, whatever you may suspect 
to the contrary, the Wesleyans would not deem 
any man very " sober-minded," nor well inform- 
ed, who should express himself on a subject of 
this nature in a manner so uncouth and indefi- 
nite. What is it to be " perfectly sanctified ?" 
What is meant by " one act of faith ?" What 
is it that believers have the " privilege to 
claim whenever they choose ?" The grammati- 
cal construction of the sentence would suggest, 
that it is the " one act of faith ;" but for a per- 
son to " claim" an " act," when that " act" is to 
be his own, is a mode of expression that would 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D. 135 

not be expected from " persons esteemed sober- 
minded." Should any reader wish to know 
what the Wesleyans really believe on the sub- 
ject of personal sanctification, he will find the 
information which he seeks in Mr. Wesley's 
" Plain Account of Christian Perfection ;" and 
in Mr. Fletcher's " Essay on the Twin Doc- 
trines of Christian Imperfection and a Death 
Purgatory." Among other excellences, these 
works have the merit of being intelligible. 
The writers studied not to darken, to misrepre- 
sent, to perplex and confound the reader ; but 
endeavoured, in the fear of God, to make what 
they believed to be the truth plain and clear, 
and then to apply it to the understanding and 
conscience of every one. 

But your main proof of the practical Antino- 
mianism of the Wesleyan body is deduced 
from the case of Dr. Coke, and is thus stated : 
" It has been observed how very eminent 
among them have been individuals known in no 
ordinary degree to be ambitious and worldly. 
One need but refer to the case of the individual 
to whom Wesley deputed the organization of 
their missions. He was known to be ambitious, 
affecting high titles of honour, to which he had 
no claim ; was consecrated to the episcopal 
office, and took its highest spiritual titles : 



136 A LETTER TO 

since his death, it has been discovered that he 
made application for a bishopric in the Church, 
being ready on such terms to abandon his 
Wesleyanism. All this is known : yet he is 
not disowned, but held in high repute as before." 
The facts of this case shall be honestly stated, 
and then the public shall judge between you 
and the object of your vituperation. 

Dr. Coke was a Welshman by birth. He 
was the only child of his parents, from whom 
he inherited an ample fortune. Having been 
educated for the Christian ministry in the Uni- 
versity of Oxford, and taken his degree there, 
he obtained episcopal ordination, and the 
curacy of South Petherton, in Somersetshire ; 
where he was greatly persecuted on account of 
his zeal, and energetic endeavours to suppress 
the reigning vices of the place. While yet 
comparatively young, he formed an acquaint- 
ance with Mr. Wesley, and soon after connect- 
ed himself with that apostolic minister as a 
fellow-labourer ; his scholarship and intelli- 
gence, the cheerful buoyancy of his spirit, his 
fidelity and godly ardour, with his untiring ac- 
tivity and perseverance, endearing him to that 
venerable man, who greatly needed such an as- 
sistant. When the United States of America 
had gained their independence, and most of the 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D.D. 137 

English clergy had left that country, Mr. Wes- 
ley consented to give to his societies there the 
form and character of a regular church, having 
all the ordinances of Christianity ; and he re- 
solved that its government and order should be 
episcopal. He did not think that episcopacy 
was expressly instituted by God, nor that it is 
binding upon the church everywhere ; but he 
thought that it had many advantages, was 
venerable for its antiquity, and well adapted to 
the state of his societies in America, who were 
scattered over a vast extent of country. He 
appointed Dr. Coke to the office of a bishop ; 
instructed him to invest Mr. Asbury, who had 
been in America for several years, with the 
same office ; and then directed, that they should 
unitedly ordain the American preachers gene- 
rally to the duties of the Christian ministry. 
This charge the doctor fulfilled, as it appears, 
to Mr. Wesley's entire satisfaction ; except that 
he and Mr. Asbury, with the concurrence of 
the preachers over whom they were to preside, 
took the name of bishops ; the less-imposing 
title of " superintendents" being assigned to 
them by the venerable man under whose direc- 
tion they acted. 

Having accomplished his difficult task in the 
United States, the doctor returned to England, 



138 A LETTER TO 

which he soon after left, with a band of mis- 
sionaries, all of whom, except one, he intended 
to fix in the most necessitous and promising 
places of British North America ; but they 
were driven by contrary winds to the West 
Indies, where they found providential openings 
for missionary labour. The doctor visited 
various islands, and left his self-denying com- 
panions as the religious instructers of the en- 
slaved negroes. This was in the year 1786 ; 
and from this period, to the end of his life, his 
energies were chiefly directed to the support 
and extension of the West India mission, thus 
auspiciously begun. 

The negro slaves were then perhaps, without 
exception, the most oppressed and degraded 
part of the human race. Many of them had 
been torn from their families and homes on 
their native continent, and after enduring the 
indescribable miseries of " the middle passage," 
were subjected to a slavery worse than death. 
The tenderest feelings of their nature were, as 
a matter of course, often violated by the hope- 
less separation of husbands and wives, parents 
and children ; not excepting even those of a 
tender age. Men and women were subjected 
to hard labour in the fields, and under a burn- 
ing sun ; their required task of duty was extorted 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 139 

from them by the inhuman application of the 
cart-whip ; and often for slight offences, even 
inadvertencies, their flesh was mercilessly 
torn and lacerated by the same instrument of 
torture. The greater part of these friendless 
outcasts were left to faint and die under their 
complicated wrongs without either sympathy 
or hope. 

To alleviate the sufferings of these hapless 
people, by the consolations of religion, and to 
prepare them for a world of blessedness, where 
there is no more curse, and where the voice of 
the oppressor is unheard, was the leading busi- 
ness of Dr. Coke's life. He travelled through 
Great Britain and Ireland, selecting missiona- 
ries, making congregational collections for their 
support, w T aiting personally upon opulent fami- 
lies and individuals to whom he could gain 
access for the same purpose, and creating 
everywhere an interest in behalf of an oppress- 
ed people, who received the gospel with grate- 
ful joy. The missionaries themselves were 
often treated with personal violence, and even 
imprisoned ; their places of worship were 
closed ; and the negro congregations deprived 
of the word and sacraments of Christ, and for- 
bidden even to meet for religious purposes. In 
all these cases Dr. Coke was their faithful and 



140 A LETTER TO 

ever-active friend ; bringing the persecuting 
acts of the local authorities before his majesty's 
government at home, and often obtaining the 
royal interference for the protection of the op- 
pressed. Notwithstanding his very gentlemanly 
manners, and the obvious disinterestedness of 
his labours, he received many an insult in seeking 
pecuniary aid for the mission to the negroes ; 
and in one instance, at least, a fierce dog was 
set upon him by a person on whom he had 
called, and whom he had mistakingly supposed 
to be charitable and humane. Yet his was a 
firmness of purpose which no form of opposition 
could dishearten. Nothing could quench the 
ardour of his zeal. He crossed the Atlantic 
Ocean eighteen times, at his own expense, for 
missionary purposes ; repeatedly visited the 
West Indies, with the design of preaching to 
the negroes, and of encouraging the missions ; 
and also the American continent, the wilds of 
w 7 hich he traversed extensively, ministering to 
the scattered people the w r ord of life. He ex- 
pended the whole of his private fortune in the 
vast enterprise of truth and mercy with which 
he was connected; and had it not been for the 
property which he received with the two ladies 
whom he successively married he must have 
died in indigence. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 141 

" Paul's love of Christ, and steadiness unbribed, 
Were copied close in him, and well transcribed ; 
He followed Paul ; his zeal a kindred flame, 
His apostolic charity the same, 
Like him cross'd cheerfully tempestuous seas, 
Forsaking country, kindred, friends, and ease ; 
Like him he labour'd, and like him content 
To bear it, suffer'd shame where'er he went." 

Such was the man whom you have described 
as " worldly," and that " in no ordinary degree ;" 
the man whom, above all others, you have 
selected in proof that, among the Wesleyans, 
the " standard of morals and holiness is of ne- 
cessity low !" 

" Blush, calumny ; and write upon his tomb, 
If honest eulogy can spare thee room, 
Thy deep repentance." 

" His tomb," did I say ? but I forget myself. 
His grave is the great deep ; for he died at 
sea, on a missionary voyage. Yet he has left 
in the east, and in the far west, monuments of 
his godly zeal ; and, above all, his record is 
on high. For indeed few men, however dili- 
gent and pious, have laboured so successfully. 
The Methodist Episcopal. Church in America 
has been an immense blessing to that rising 
country. It has carried the gospel and ordi- 
nances of Christ to the remotest settlements of 



142 A LETTER TO 

the Union, as well as to the populous towns, 
and that to the spiritual benefit of millions. At 
this day it is the most numerous religious body 
in those lands. The result of the doctor's la- 
bours in the West Indies is equally gratifying. 
The Wesleyan missions, with those of other 
bodies of Christian people, prepared the black 
and coloured population in those islands for 
emancipation ; so that nearly a million of abject 
and crouching slaves are likely to be, at no dis- 
tant period, elevated into a free peasantry, ho- 
noured and happy subjects of the British crown. 
The labours of no one man contributed more 
directly and efficiently to bring about this most 
desirable state of things, than thqae of Dr. 
Coke. The venerated Wilberforce has justly 
acquired imperishable fame for his services in 
behalf of the negro race ; and yet the sacrifices 
of time and property, of convenience, ease, and 
reputation, which even he made in behalf of 
this injured people, were far surpassed by those 
of Dr. Coke, the very mention of whose name 
you seem scarcely able to endure. To the 
cause of religion and humanity he devoted all 
that he had to give ; — his property, his time, 
his intellect, his influence, his life. 

Great as have been the civil advantages 
which the negroes in the West Indies have 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 143 

derived from the labours of Dr. Coke, those 
poor outcasts have received spiritual benefits of 
immensely greater importance. Tens of thou- 
sands of them have been brought to a saving 
knowledge of God and of Christ, and have lived 
and died in holiness and peace. I will take the 
liberty of mentioning one instance, which I 
remember to have read many years ago in the 
private journal of a deceased missionary. A 
negro slave, a member of the Wesleyan society, 
came one day to inform him of a painful trial 
through which he had just been called to pass. 
When employed in his daily labour, he was 
thinking of the love of Christ, and forgetting 
for a moment that the driver was near, he be- 
gan to sing a verse of a hymn in praise of his 
Saviour. It was deemed an unpardonable 
offence, that a slave should sing in the presence 
of one who was so much his superior. The 
negro was therefore fastened to the ground, 
and severely flogged for his alleged insolence. 
The sufferer finished his affecting narrative 
with these significant words : — " Still, massa, 
while I was under de lash, de sing was in my 
heart" Yes, sir, the love of Christ, which 
burned in the breast of that oppressed man, and 
enabled him to make melody to the Lord in his 
heart in the midst of torture, has enabled many 



144 A LETTER TO 

of his sable brethren to bear their wrongs with 
meekness and resignation, and has prepared 
them for the songs of the glorified. Such have 
been, on an extensive scale, the blessed fruits 
of a mission which Dr. Coke had the honour to 
originate and superintend. 

The question of Dr. Coke's " worldliness" I 
hope may now be considered as fairly settled. 
He might have purchased a rich living, and 
probably have obtained preferment in the 
Church, had he been so minded. Instead of 
this, he lived only to promote the spiritual inte- 
rests of the most neglected of mankind. His 
salary, as a Methodist clergyman, was sixty 
pounds a year. In proof of his " ambition," you 
say, he " affected high titles of honour, to 
which he had no claim ;" and that he " was 
consecrated to the episcopal office, and took its 
highest spiritual titles." You have given no 
proof that he sought the office of a bishop at 
the hands of Mr. Wesley ; which, for any thing 
we know to the contrary, was imposed on him, 
as matter of duty, by that venerable minister, 
whom he had engaged to serve as a son in 
the gospel. He certainly exceeded his instruc- 
tions in taking the name of bishop ; but then it 
was pleaded in justification, that he had receiv- 
ed the office of which that name is the acknow- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D, 145 

ledged title ; and in accepting the name he ap- 
pears to have been greatly influenced by the 
judgment and feelings of the men toward 
whom he sustained the episcopal relation. 
You say that he " affected high titles of honour, 
to which he had no claim." What titles he 
" affected," I know not. The titles of honour 
which he received were those of " doctor," 
and " bishop." The former of these was given 
to him in consequence of the degree which he 
took at the university ; and in this case I pre- 
sume he had as just a " claim" to it as any other 
man. You say, he took the " highest spi- 
ritual titles" of the " episcopal office." This is 
not true. You greatly exaggerate. He was 
never called " prelate," " right reverend," nor 
" father in God ;" much less was he ever 
called " archbishop," " most reverend," or "your 
grace ;" but simply " bishop," and that not in 
England, but only in America. Of course it is 
your judgment that he had " no claim" to this 
title ; but then there are many others who are 
of a very different mind. They maintain that 
every true minister of Christ, who has a pasto- 
ral charge, is a Scriptural bishop; and certainly 
some of the arguments which they adduce are 
of great weight : especially those which are 
drawn from the address of St. Paul to the 
10 



146 A LETTER TO 

presbyters of the Ephesian church, (Acts xx, 
17-35,) and from his epistles to Timothy and 
Titus. You have an undoubted right to your 
opinion ; and those who are otherwise minded 
have an equal right to theirs. So we may let 
this matter pass. When a man accepts an 
office, I presume it is no proof of " ambition" 
that he receives the title by which it is usually 
designated. 

In reference to Dr. Coke, you further state, 
11 Since his death it has been discovered that 
he made application for a bishopric in the 
Church, being ready on such terms to aban- 
don his Wesieyanism." You here, I presume, 
allude to a letter which he is said to have ad- 
dressed to the late Mr. Wilberforce, and which 
the sons of that eminent man have recently 
published.* As I wish to evade nothing that 
you have said, either against Dr. Coke or the 
Wesleyan body generally, but fairly to meet 
every objection that you have urged, I here 
give that letter entire ; so that the public may 
have the means of judging concerning every 
point at issue. 

* Correspondence of William Wilberforce. Edited by his 
sons, Robert Isaac Wilberforce, M. A., Vicar of East Far- 
leigh, late Fellow of Oriel College : and Samuel Wilberforce, 
M. A., Archdeacon of Surrey, Rector of Brighstone. Vol. ii, 
pp. 256-261, 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 147 

" REV. DR. COKE TO WM. WILBERFORCE, ESQ. 

" At Samuel Hague's, Esq., Leeds, 
April 14, 1813. 

" Dear and highly respected Sir, — A 
subject, which appears to me of great moment, 
lies much upon my mind ; and yet it is a sub- 
ject of such a delicate nature, that I cannot 
venture to open my mind upon it to any one, of 
whose candour, piety, delicacy, and honour, I 
have not the highest opinion. Such a charac- 
ter I do indubitably esteem you, sir ; and as 
such, I will run the risk of opening my whole 
heart to you upon the point. 

11 For at least twelve years, sir, the interests of 
our Indian empire have lain very near my heart. 
In several instances I have made attempts to 
open a way for missions in that country, and 
even for my going over there myself. But 
every thing proved abortive. 

" The prominent desire of my soul, even 
from my infancy, (I may almost say,) has been 
to be useful. Even when I was a Deist for 
part of my time at Oxford, (what a miracle of 
grace !) usefulness was my most darling object. 
The Lord has been pleased to fix me for about 
thirty-seven years on a point of great usefulness. 
My influence in the lar^e Wesleyan connection, 



148 A LETTER TO 

the introduction and superintendence of our 
missions in different parts of the globe, and the 
wide sphere opened to me for the preaching of 
the gospel to almost innumerable, large, and 
attentive congregations, have opened to me a 
very extensive field for usefulness. And yet I 
could give up all for India. Could I but close 
my life in being the means of raising a spiritual 
church in India, it would satisfy the utmost 
ambition of my soul here below. 

" I am not so much wanted in our connection 
at home as I once was. Our committee of privi- 
leges, as we term it, can watch over the interests 
of the body, in respect to laws and government, 
as well in my absence as if I was with them. 
Our missionary committee in London can do 
the same in respect to missions ; and my ab- 
sence would only make them feel their duty 
more incumbent upon them. Auxiliary commit- 
tees through the nation (which we have now in 
contemplation) will amply supply my place in 
respect to raising money. There is nothing to 
influence me much against going to India, but 
my extensive sphere for preaching the gospel. 
But this, I do assure you, sir, sinks considera- 
bly in my calculation, in comparison of the 
high honour (if the Lord was to confer it upon 
me in his providence and grace) of beginning 



rev. i:d\vard d. pusev, d. d. 149 

or reviving a genuine work of religion in the 
immense regions of Asia. 

" Impressed with these views, I wrote a let- 
ter about a fortnight ago to the earl of Liver- 
pool. I have either mislaid the copy of it, or 
destroyed it at the time, for fear of its falling 
into improper hands. After an introduction, 
drawn up in the most delicate manner in my 
power, I took notice of the observations made 
by Lord Castlereagh in the House of Commons, 
concerning a religious establishment in India, 
connected with the established Church at home. 
I then simply opened my situation in the Wes- 
leyan connection, as I have stated to you, sir, 
above. I enlarged on the earnest desire I had 
of closing my life in India, observing, that if his 
royal highness the prince regent and the gov- 
ernment should think proper to appoint me their 
bishop in India, I should most cheerfully and 
most gratefully accept of the offer. I am sorry 
I have lost the copy of the letter. In my letter 
to Lord Liverpool, I observed, that I should, in 
case of my appointment to the episcopacy of 
India, return most fully and faithfully into the 
bosom of the established Church, and do every 
thing in my power to promote its interests, and 
would submit to all such restrictions in the ful- 
filment of my office, as the government and the 



150 A LETTER TO 

bench of bishops at home should think neces- 
sary ; that my prime motive was to be useful 
to the Europeans in India ; and that my second 
(though not the least) was to introduce the 
Christian religion among the Hindoos by the 
preaching of the gospel, and perhaps, also, by 
the establishment of schools. 

" I have not, sir, received an answer. Did I 
think that the answer was withheld because 
Lord Liverpool considered me as acting very 
improperly by making the request, I should 
take no further step in the business. This 
may be the case ; but his lordship's silence 
may arise from other motives ; on the one hand, 
because he did not choose to send me an abso- 
lute refusal ; and, on the other hand, because 
he did not see it proper, at least just now, to 
give me any encouragement. When I was in 
some doubt this morning, whether I ought to 
take the liberty of writing to you, my mind be- 
came determined on my being informed, about 
three hours ago, that, in a letter received from 
you, by Mr. Hey, you observed that the gene- 
rality of the House of Commons were set 
against granting any thing of an imperative 
kind to the dissenters or Methodists in favour 
of sending missionaries to India. Probably I 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 151 

may err in respect to the exact words which 
you used. 

" I am not conscious, my dear respected sir, 
that the least degree of ambition influences me 
in this business. I possess a fortune of about 
one thousand two hundred pounds a year, which 
is sufficient to bear my travelling expenses, 
and to enable me to make many charitable 
donations. I have lost two dear wives, and am 
now a widower. Our leading friends through 
the connection receive me, and treat me with 
the utmost respect and hospitality. I am quite 
surrounded with friends who greatly love me ; 
but India still cleaves to my heart. I sincerely 
believe that my strong inclination to spend the 
remainder of my life in India originates in the 
divine will, while I am called upon to use the 
secondary means to obtain the end. 

" I have formed an intimate acquaintance 
with Dr. Buchanan, and have written to him, 
to inform him that I shall make him a visit 
within a few days, if it be convenient. From 
his house I intend, Deo volente, to return to 
Leeds for a day, and then to set off next week 
for London. The latter end of last November 
1 visited him before at Moat Hall, his place of 
residence ; and a most pleasant visit it was to 



152 A LETTER l'O 

me, and also to him, I have reason to think. 
He has been, since I saw him, drinking of the 
same bitter cup of which I have been drinking, 
by the loss of a beloved wife. 

" I would just observe, sir, that a hot climate 
peculiarly agrees with me. I was never better 
in my life than in the West Indies during the 
four visits I made to that archipelago ; and 
should now prefer the torrid zone, as a climate, 
to any other part of the world. Indeed, I 
enjoy in this country, though sixty-five years of 
age, such an uninterrupted flow of health and 
strength, as astonishes all my acquaintance. 
They commonly observe, they have perceived 
no difference in me for these last twenty years. 

" I would observe, sir, as I did at the com- 
mencement of rny letter, that I throw myself 
on your candour, piety, and honour. If I do 
not succeed in my views of India, and it were 
known among the preachers that I had been 
taking the steps I am now taking, (though from 
a persuasion that I am in the divine will in so 
doing,) it might more or less affect my useful- 
ness in the vineyard of my Lord, and that 
would very much afflict me. And yet, notwith- 
standing this, I cannot satisfy myself without 
making some advances in the business. 

" I consider, sir, your brother-in-law, Mr, 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 153 

Stephen, to be a man of eminent worth. I have 
a very high esteem for him. I know that his 
yea is yea, and what he promises he certainly 
will perform. Without some promise of confi- 
dence he might (if he were acquainted with the 

present business) mention it to Mr. , with 

whom I know Mr. Stephen is acquainted. If 

Mr. were acquainted with the steps I am 

taking, he would, I am nearly sure, call imme- 
diately a meeting of our committee of privileges, 
and the consequence might be unfavourable to 
my influence, and consequently to my useful- 
ness, among the Methodists. But my mind 
must be eased. I must venture this letter, and 
leave the whole to God, and under him, sir, to 
you. 

11 I have reason to Relieve that Lord Eldon 
had, (indeed, I am sure of it,) and probably now 
has, an esteem for me. Lord Sidmouth, I do 
think, loves me. Lord Castlereagh once ex- 
pressed to Mr. Alexander Knox, then his pri- 
vate secretary in Ireland, his very high regard 
for me : since that time I have had one inter- 
view with his lordship in London. I have 
been favoured, on various occasions, with public 
and private interviews with Lord Bathurst. I 
shall be glad to have your advice, whether I 
should write letters to those noblemen, particu- 



154 A LETTER TO 

larly to the two first, on the present subject ; or 
whether I had not better suspend every thing, 
and have the pleasure of seeing you in London. 
I hope I shall have that honour. I shall be 
glad to receive three or four lines from you, (do 
not write, unless you think it may be of some 
immediate importance,) signifying that I may 
wait on you immediately on my arrival in 
London. 

" I have the honour to be, with very high 
respect, my dear sir, your very much obliged, 
very humble, and very faithful servant, 

"T. Coke." 

Upon this very remarkable document I beg 
leave to offer a few brief observations. 

1. The letter itself was strictly private and 
confidential. The writer was aware that it 
was liable to misconception, and that an evil 
use might be made of it by persons who did 
not know the real nature and circumstances of 
the case. Pie therefore says, in reference to 
the matter which he had to communicate, 
u It is a subject of such a delicate nature, that 
I cannot venture to open my mind upon it to 
any one, of whose candour, piety, delicacy, 
and honour I have not the highest opinion. 
Such a character I do indubitably esteem you, 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 155 

sir ; and as such I will run the risk of opening 
my whole heart to you upon the point." The 
doctor felt, that although his motives were per- 
fectly pure and upright, he was staking his 
reputation and future usefulness upon the 
honour of his correspondent. All classes of 
good men have an interest in the character of 
Mr. Wilberforce, the Christian statesman and 
philanthropist, the friend of Africa, of the Bible 
Society, and of all that is charitable and holy ; 
and it is gratifying to know that he never 
abused the generous confidence that was thus 
reposed in him. Dr. Coke had often consulted 
him on questions connected with West Indian 
affairs, and regarded him as a personal friend ; 
nor does it appear that the subject thus intrust- 
ed to him ever passed the lips of Mr. Wilber- 
force. To the end of life, while Dr. Coke 
lived, and when the doctor was no more, Mr. 
Wilberforce proved himself to be the man of 
" candour, piety, delicacy, and honour," which 
the letter assumes. At his death, the trust 
which he had so sacredly kept devolved upon 
his clerical sons ; and in what manner they 
have acted in reference to it, the appearance 
of the letter in a printed form declares. The 
case of the doctor, however, is not peculiar. 
Solomon has said, " Thine own friend, and thy 



156 A LETTER TO 

father's friend, forsake not;" (Prov. xxvii, 10 ;) 
but the sons of Mr. Wilberforce, unmindful of 
this maxim of inspired wisdom, have pursued a 
course, not with regard to Dr. Coke only, but 
also to various other friends of their father, 
which, to say the least, is very unusual among 
persons of chivalrous honour, and of tender 
filial affection. 

2. It will be observed, that Dr. Coke mentions 
the fact of his having formerly been" a Deist ;" 
and as you have invited the attention of the pub- 
lic to his letter, in which he makes the admis- 
sion, it is but justice to him to give an expla- 
nation of this subject. He went to the univer- 
sity of Oxford a simple-minded, upright youth, 
about seventeen years of age, accustomed to 
observe the forms of Christianity, and never 
having entertained any doubt of its truth ; but 
he soon found himself at college surrounded by 
fellow-students who laughed at all religion. 
The worst part of the story remains to be told. 
His college tutor was an infidel and a drunkard, 
who succeeded in wresting from the unarmed 
stripling his faith in the revelation of God. 
" It was chiefly in his cups that this gentleman 
administered the poison. ' Eh, Coke!' he 
would then say, as well as he could, ■ do you 
believe the Adam and Eve story ? Eh !' and 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 157 

thus got rid of the Bible with a fool-born jest."* 
Whether this profane scoffer was in the " apos- 
tolical succession," of which the world has 
heard so much of late years, I know not ; but 
he was certainly intrusted with the training of 
those who were to be the successors of apos- 
tles, saints, and martyrs, in the holy ministry ; 
and in what manner he fulfilled his task, the 
sad experience of young Coke, and of Coke's 
fellow-students, too plainly shows. He taught 
the future ministers of the Lord Jesus to 
blaspheme that " name which is above every 
name," and to which " every knee shall" be 
made to " bow." If Dr. Coke's moral princi- 
ples were corrupt through life, as you seem 
wishful it should be understood that they were, 
it cannot be forgotten that they were corrupted 
at the very place where they ought to have been 
purified and strengthened. But the truth is, 
that, though his unsuspecting mind was for a 
time perverted, he was by the mercy of God 
soon rescued out of " the snare of the devil," 
and became one of the most devoted and useful 
ministers of his age. 

3. The object, which Dr. Coke proposed in 
his letter, the spread of true religion in the 
East, was every way noble, and worthy of the 

* Moore's Life of Wesley, vol. ii, p. 308. 



158 A LETTER TO 

high character which he had acquired as a mis- 
sionary, and a friend of Christian missions : but 
the means by which he sought to attain it were 
never likely to be conceded to him ; and there- 
fore his application for a bishopric in India was 
highly indiscreet. It was not at all probable 
that the earl of Liverpool, or any other prime 
minister of England, whatever he might think 
of Dr. Coke personally, and however kindly he 
might be disposed toward him, w^ould give 
such an appointment to any clergyman who had 
been so notoriously irregular ; for it must of 
necessity have given great umbrage to many 
persons of rank and influence, whom the head 
of every government must wish rather to con- 
ciliate than to offend. Had the doctor consult- 
ed with his best friends, he would never have 
entertained the thought of this project, -and 
much less would he have disclosed it to Lord 
Liverpool and Mr. Wilberforce. Every one 
who knew him was aware that his judgment 
was not equal to his zeal. The ardour of his 
mind sometimes bordered upon impetuosity, and 
occasionally led him, especially in the absence 
of his ordinary advisers, into acts of indiscre- 
tion, This was his great failing ; and he often 
confessed it. But, then, a man of cooler tem- 
perament would never have planned and exe- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D. 159 

cuted the schemes of usefulness with which 
his name stands in honourable connection, and 
the benefits of which are likely to extend 
through all time. The letter was indiscreet. 
This is freely acknowledged; but more than 
this, to the writer's disadvantage, no man can 
prove. 

4. I have often had occasion to complain of 
the incorrectness and extreme partiality of your 
statements, which must necessarily mislead 
such readers as are not already acquainted 
with the subjects to which they refer. An 
instance of this occurs in your account of 
Dr. Coke. You say, " He made application 
for a bishopric in the Church, being ready on 
such terms to abandon his Wesleyanism." 
Thousands of persons have probably read these 
words who never saw the Wilberforce corres- 
pondence, and do not know the facts to which 
you allude. Such persons, judging from your 
mode of expression only, will naturally infer 
that the clerical superintendent of the Wesley- 
an missions was wishful to barter his Method- 
ism for one of the English bishoprics, with its 
ample emoluments, a seat in the House of Peers, 
the title of " my lord," and extensive patronage. 
You know that this was not the fact, and it 
cannot have been your intention to convey a 



160 A LETTER TO 

meaning so remote from the truth. Allow me, 
then, to suggest, whether a writer who deals in 
vituperation ought not to be more guarded, and 
carefully to abstain from the use of terms which 
convey an idea of blame far beyond what he 
really designed to express ? I submit that you 
ought in all fairness to have said that the pre- 
ferment for which Dr. Coke applied was a mis- 
sionary bishopric in India, where no English 
prelate at that time had ever set his foot. If it 
was a post of honour, it was no less a post of 
difficulty and peril ; and certainly, considered 
in itself, apart from the momentous object which 
the doctor proposed, no very enviable situation 
for a man who had nearly arrived at the grave 
period of " threescore years and ten." 

5. Your charge against Dr. Coke is, that 
he was " worldly" and " ambitious ;" and you 
allege as proof, that he sought to obtain a bish- 
opric in India. I presume you will not deny 
that it is lawful to accept a bishopric, and in 
some instances even to ask for it ; since an 
apostle has declared, " This is a true saying, If 
a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth 
a good work," 1 Tim. iii, 1. Yet if a man de- 
sire this office under the influence of corrupt 
motives, he is deeply criminal in the sight of 
God ; and this you assume to have been the 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 161 

fact with respect to Dr. Coke. The feelings 
which swayed his mind in this affair, according 
to his own apprehension, he has distinctly- 
stated in his letter to Mr. Wilberforce. " My 
influence in the large Wesleyan connection," 
says he, " the introduction and superintendence 
of our missions in different parts of the globe, 
and the wide sphere opened to me for the 
preaching of the gospel to almost innumerable 
large and attentive congregations, have opened 
to me a very extensive field of usefulness. 
And yet I could give up all for India. Could 
I but close my life in being the means of rais- 
ing a spiritual church in India, it would satisfy 
the utmost ambition of my soul here below." 
" There is nothing to influence me much against 
going to India, but my extensive sphere for 
preaching the gospel. But this, I do assure 
you, sir, sinks considerably in my calculation, 
in comparison of the high honour (if the Lord 
was to confer it upon me in his providence 
and grace) of beginning or reviving a genuine 
work of religion in the immense regions of 
Asia." " I am quite surrounded with friends 
who greatly love me ; but India still cleaves to 
my heart." 

Such is the doctor's own statement, the whole 
of which you repudiate, so far as his motives 
11 



162 A LETTER TO 

are concerned. You can see nothing in all his 
concern for India, with its teeming millions of 
idolaters, perishing in ignorance and sin, but the 
desire of the mitre which glittered before his 
eyes. The onus of proof, of course, rests with 
you. It is one of the easiest things in the 
world to impute bad motives to any man, how- 
ever upright and blameless he may be ; but it 
is often difficult to prove a negative. Happily, 
however, in this case the proof is at hand that 
you have treated this good minister of Jesus 
Christ with flagrant injustice. His desire to 
go to India commenced long before men in 
power began to talk of founding a bishopric 
there ; and that desire suffered no abatement 
when the hope of the mitre had passed away 
like a dream. His biographer says, — 

" In the early part of his Jife, Dr. Coke had 
considered India as a region which afforded an 
ample field for missionary exertions ; and in 
the year 1784 he had actually written a letter 
to a gentleman in India, to make inquiries into 
the state of morals, the influence of idolatry, 
the difficulties to be encountered, the probable 
amount of expense, the prospect of success, and 
the best plan of procedure, in case the establish- 
ment of a mission were attempted in Asia. To 
these inquiries, and a variety of others closely 



REV. EDWARD B. PU8EY, D.D. 163 

connected with this general question, he receiv- 
ed a very long, very full, and an accurately de- 
tailed account in a letter, dated February 10th, 
1785. This letter may be found in the Armi- 
nian Magazine for the year 1792. 

" The difficulties which this letter faithfully 
recorded were too formidable to be at that time 
encountered. And as those places in which 
missions have since been established presented 
a more promising field, the concerns of Asia 
were postponed until finance, ability, and lei- 
sure should combine to mark the expediency 
of the arduous enterprise. Nor was it until the 
year 1813, when those circumstances united 
together which have been enumerated, that 
Dr. Coke thought the period fully come. 

"Although nothing was done toward the es- 
tablishment of a mission in India till this time, 
it was a subject that had frequently engrossed 
his thoughts. On every occasion that present- 
ed itself he seized the opportunity to promote 
inquiries ; thus continually augmenting his 
stock of information, which was treasured up 
against the anticipated but distant result. In 
the year 1806, Dr. Coke, being at the house of 
a pious gentleman in Cornwall, who had re- 
sided upward of twenty years in India, unfolded 
to him the designs which were then ripening in 



164 A LETTER TO 

his mind. From this gentleman (Colonel Wil- 
liam Sandys) he procured a fund of information, 
with which he was so highly pleased, that he 
requested him to state what he had communi- 
cated to the missionary committee in London, 
in order to prepare them for that work which 
he fully expected he should one day undertake. 
A statement was accordingly given to the com- 
mittee by Colonel Sandys,- a copy of which is 
now before the author ; and ^it is evident, from 
comparing its recommendations with the facts 
furnished by the mission when fitted out, that 
its principles were not without their influence 
in the arrangements which were finally made."* 
These statements, so distinct and particular, 
and* which imbody various facts, fully settle the 
point for which they are adduced. They prove 
that, nearly thirty years before Dr. Coke wrote 
to Lord Liverpool and Mr. Wilberforce, the 
spiritual necessities of India rested with great 
weight upon his mind : and that he cherished an 
earnest desire to assist in extending the bless- 
ings of Christianity through that vast region of 
darkness, idolatry, and death. His compas- 
sionate concern for the perishing millions there 
was not first excited by the hope of a bishopric. 
The gentleman in India to whom he wrote in 

* Drew's Life of Dr. Coke, pp. 340, 341. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 165 

1731, and whose .valuable letter is referred to 
by the doctor's biographer, there is reason to 
believe, was Mr. Charles Grant, the father of 
Lord Glenelg. 

The authorities connected with India were 
generally opposed to any extended efforts to 
spread Christianity among the heathen popula- 
tion of that vast country, and especially so far 
as the Methodists and dissenters were concern- 
ed. Their plea was, that any direct interfe- 
rence with the reigning superstition would 
endanger the British dominion in the East. 
Of this Dr. Coke was fully aware ; and he 
learned, from Mr. Wilberforce's letter to Mr. 
Hey, of Leeds, that the same feeling predomi- 
nated in the House of Commons. " When I 
was in some doubt this morning," says he, 
11 whether I ought to take the liberty of writing 
to you, my mind became determined on my 
being informed, about three hours ago, that, in 
a letter received from you, by Mr. Hey, you 
observed that the generality of the House of 
Commons were set against granting any thing 
of an imperative kind to the dissenters or Me- 
thodists in favour of sending missionaries to 
India." The difficulty which the Wesleyans 
experienced in the support of their existing 
missions rendered them generally unwilling to 



166 A LETTER TO 

engage in any new enterprises of the same 
kind. It appeared, therefore, to Dr. Coke, that 
if he were to do any thing toward the advance- 
ment of the cause of Christ in the East Indies, 
he must do it, not as a Methodist, but as a cler- 
gyman of the Church of England : and under 
the influence of this impression, he felt it his 
duty to offer his services as a bishop in that 
distant land. 

Dr. Coke's letter to Mr. Wilberforce bears 
the date of April 14th, 1813; and that to the 
earl of Liverpool was written about a fortnight 
earlier. The earl was silent, and what answer 
Mr. Wilberforce returned does not appear ; but 
it certainly contained nothing that could lead 
the doctor to expect the appointment which he 
had solicited ; so that the hope of the bishopric 
was soon at an end. But the doctor's yearn- 
ings for India were so far from being extin- 
guished by the disappointment, that they be- 
came increasingly strong and irrepressible. 
His friend, Mr. Drew, addressed to him a let- 
ter, in which he " endeavoured to dissuade him 
from his purpose of visiting India, on account 
of his age ; the shock which his constitution 
must sustain by a long residence in the torrid 
zone ; the difficulty of rendering the organs of 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 167 

articulation sufficiently flexible, at his time of 
life, to enable him to pronounce a new language ; 
and, finally, his inability to leave behind him a 
successor that should be at once able and will- 
ing to beg from door to door, to support the 
missions already established." 

To this remonstrance the doctor returned 
the following answer, dated June 28th, 1813; 
nearly three months, it will be observed, after 
he had written to Mr. Wilberforce : "lam now 
dead to Europe, and alive for India. God him- 
self has said to me, * Go to Ceylon.' I am as 
much convinced of the will of God in this re- 
spect, as that I breathe ; so fully convinced, 
that methinks I had rather be set naked on the 
coast of Ceylon, without clothes, and without a 
friend, than not go there. The Portuguese 
language is much spoken all round the coast of 
India. According to Dr. Buchanan, there are 
five hundred thousand Christians (nominal 
Christians at least) in Ceylon ; and there are 
only two ministers to take care of them. I am 
learning the Portuguese language continually, 
and am perfectly certain I shall conquer it be- 
fore I land in Ceylon. The fleets sail in Oc- 
tober and January. If the conference employ 
me to raise the money for the outset, I shall 



168 A LETTER TO 

not be able to sail till January. I shall bear 
my own expenses, of course.' 5 * 

The Wesleyan Conference assembled toward 
the close of July following, and before that 
body " Dr. Coke introduced his design to visit 
India ; stating at large the providential concur- 
rence of circumstances which had appeared, 
the favourable disposition which some men in 
power had manifested toward the mission, and 
the reasons which had finally led him to visit 
the eastern regions of the globe. At the same 
time he introduced to the conference six young 
men, whom he had procured to accompany 
him, and share in his toils." " The connection 
at this conference being deeply involved in 
debt, Dr. Coke was well aware that the old 
objection, which he had for many years been 
compelled to encounter, and occasionally to 
stifle with an act of generosity, would again be 
raised. And it seemed probable, from the em- 
barrassments which existed, that his design to 
visit India would be wholly defeated, unless he 
could find some decisive method to impose 
silence upon the tongue of opposition, so far as 
pecuniary assistance and domestic claims were 
engaged in the issue. To meet this he boldly 
and generously offered to bear, from his own 

* Drew's Life of Dr. Coke, pp. 342, 343. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D.D. 169 

private fortune, the whole expense of the outfit, 
to the amount of six thousand pounds, if that 
sum should be thought necessary."* 

It is distinctly remembered, that when this 
venerable man proposed his scheme at the con- 
ference, and his brethren attempted to dissuade 
him from the difficult enterprise, he burst into 
tears, w r ept like a child, and in a most excited 
state of feeling said, " If you will not suffer me 
to go to India, you will break my heart !" At 
the same time he declared his determination to 
expend all the property that he possessed, 
rather than fail in the establishment of a mis- 
sion there. Further opposition was useless ; 
the desired consent was given ; the doctor 
took a final leave of his friends in England ; 
and, on the 30th of December following, em- 
barked with his band of missionaries for the 
East. Having completed more than one half 
of the voyage, during which he preserved his 
hallowed cheerfulness and affability, and applied 
himself with great diligence to the studies con- 
nected with the service upon which he expect- 
ed soon to enter, he was suddenly seized with 
apoplexy, and expired in his cabin. On retir- 
ing to rest in the evening of May 2d, he " took 
his fellow missionaries by the hand, and in his 

* Drew's Life of Dr. Coke, p. 344. 



170 A LETTER TO 

usual manner commended them to God." In 
the morning " the servant knocked, as usual, at 
the cabin door. But after several efforts, being 
unable to procure a reply, he ventured to open 
the door. This being done, he discovered, to 
his utter astonishment, the mortal remains of 
Dr. Coke, lifeless, cold, and nearly stiff, stretch- 
ed upon the cabin floor." 

Due preparation having been made for the 
funeral, " the coffin was brought upon deck, 
where it remained for some time covered with 
signal flags. The awning being spread, the 
soldiers were drawn up in rank on deck, when 
the tolling of the ship's bell called together the 
passengers and crew, so that the deck was 
quite crowded with solemn and silent specta- 
tors, who seemed much affected with the scene 
of mortality they were called to witness. Mr. 
Harvard then read the burial service, and the 
body was consigned to its watery grave in 
silent solemnity, to be seen no more till the 
trumpet shall sound, and~ the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible."* 
" So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high, 
Through the dear might of Him who walk'd the waves." 

Such was the end of Dr. Coke, one of the 
most disinterested, laborious, and useful men 

* Drew's Life of Dr. Coke, p. 350. 



REV. EDWARD 13. PUSEY, D. D. 171 

of modern times ; but a man whose memory 
you have treated with the deepest disrespect ; 
having held him up to the public reprobation, as 
being "in no ordinary degree" "worldly and 
ambitious," and adduced his character in proof 
that " the standard of morals and holiness" 
among the Wesleyans must be " necessarily 
low," because they hold him in " high repute," 
instead of " disowning" his very name. He 
had, as we have seen, expended a liberal for- 
tune in generous attempts to promote the spirit- 
ual good of mankind, and eighteen times cross- 
ed the Atlantic Sea for the same purpose ; and 
when he had nearly arrived at the ordinary 
limit of human life, he entered upon the acquire- 
ment of a new language, with an exclusive 
reference to the benefit of others, and under- 
took a voyage to India, and the task of conduct- 
ing, at his own expense, six missionaries to 
that neglected field of Christian labour. By 
what " standard of morals and holiness" all 
your contumelies are heaped upon the memory 
of such a man, it is not for me to say. 

There is, however, one point more in your 
statement which needs some explanation. You 
say that Dr. Coke was " ready on such terms" 
(those of a bishopric) " to abandon his Wesley- 
anism." This allegation you have adopted 



172 A LETTER TO 

from the Messrs. Wilberforce. On committing 
the doctor's letter to the press, they seem to 
have been desirous of anticipating the opinion 
of the public, and therefore suggested that in it 
the doctor " offers to abandon the Methodists." 
You will excuse me, sir, if on this point also I 
differ both from you and them. The letter con- 
tains no such offer. What is " Wesleyanism ?" 
Its great and leading principle is, the absolute 
and universal necessity of personal conversion 
to God. All men being guilty and depraved, 
need the kindred but distinct blessings of justi- 
fication and sanctiflcation ; both of which, ac- 
cording to the gospel, are obtained by faith in 
the Lord Jesus. Those persons only, who are 
thus changed in their state and character, are 
able to love God and keep his commandments. 
The rest are in danger of perishing for ever. 
Wesleyanism therefore subordinates everything 
to such conversion ; declaring it ta be the chief 
concern of every human being, and the object 
at which, above all others, every minister ought 
to aim. If he succeed not in this, he " labours 
in vain, and spends his strength for naught." 
Canonical irregularity is an accident of Wes- 
leyanism, and does not enter into its nature and 
substance. Mr. Wesley was irregular, because 
he believed that the spiritual necessities of the 






REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. ^.73 

world required him to be so ; but this he re- 
gretted ; and there can bo no doubt that he 
would at any time have become as regular as 
any of his clerical brethren, could he have been 
convinced that by so doing he could convert 
and save a greater number of souls. Dr. Coke 
had been irregular, as irregular as were the 
apostles and primitive evangelists. Had he 
been otherwise, it is possible that, at this day, 
West India slavery might have existed in its 
untold amount of guilt and misery. But had 
he gone to India, invested with the episcopal 
office, regularity would have been essential to 
his success. Without that, he must have been 
recalled. Hence the propriety of his proposal 
to " submit to all such restrictions in the fulfil- 
ment of his office as the government and the 
bench of bishops at home should think necessa- 
ry." His purposes were perfectly honourable. 
He sought not the Church's emoluments and in- 
fluence-, to innovate upon her doctrine and order ; 
but to accomplish that which is the end of all 
ecclesiastical arrangements, — the salvation of 
redeemed men. 

There is nothing in any proposal of Dr. Coke 
that is contrary to genuine " Wesleyanism." 
The Rev. Vincent Perronet, vicar of Shoreham, 
in Kent, to the end of his very protracted life, 



I'Pi A LETTER TO 

was Mr. Wesley's friend and adviser ; so that 
Mr. Charles Wesley used to call him " the 
archbishop of the Methodists." Yet he himself 
was perfectly regular ; and not the slightest 
reflection was ever cast upon him on this ac- 
count by his Wesleyan friends. Two of his 
sons were itinerant preachers in Mr. Wesley's 
connection ; and he wrote several able tracts 
in defence of the Wesleyan tenets. The Rev. 
Walter Sellon, vicar of Ledsham, in Yorkshire, 
w r as a decided Wesleyan, and wrote largely in 
defence of Mr. Wesley's character and the- 
ology. Yet he walked strictly according to 
canonical rule. A few years ago an excellent 
clergyman in Wales died, who had been a 
member of the Wesleyan society for the long 
space of sixty years ; but his membership never 
interfered with his submission to the order of the 
Church. He thought that his talents were bet- 
ter adapted to the duties of a parish priest, than 
of an itinerant preacher \ and he acted accord- 
ingly, with the undiminished esteem and affec- 
tion of his Wesleyan brethren. That which 
was done by these good men, Dr. Coke was at 
perfect liberty to do, without abandoning his 
" Wesleyanism," provided that his usefulness 
was likely to be increased. This was his 
highest aim. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 175 

His letter to Mr. Wilberforce bears on the 
very face of it the character of an honest man, 
and not of a selfish renegade. He casts not the 
slightest reflection upon his Methodist breth- 
ren, but speaks of them in terms of the utmost 
affection and kindness. The greatest difficulty 
that he had to overcome was that of tearing 
himself away from them ; for they everywhere 
received him with esteem and hospitality, and 
surrounded him in large crowds whenever he 
occupied their pulpits. He intimates that he 
could never have entertained the thought of go- 
ing to India, had he supposed that the missions 
among the negroes would sustain any injury by 
the withdrawal of his superintendency. Not a 
syllable of regret is even whispered in the let- 
ter, that the writer had been the instrument of 
giving a constitution and the sacraments to the 
Methodist Church in America. Nor is any 
intimation given that his views of ecclesiastical 
order had undergone any change ; that he was 
at all dissatisfied with his position as a Metho- 
dist ; or that he regarded canonical regularity, 
under all circumstances, as matter of absolute 
duty. The probability is, that had it not been 
for the pecuniary difficulties which at that time 
impeded the efforts of Wesleyanism, both at 
home and abroad, and the opposition to the 



176 A LETTER TO 

system which he knew to exist in India, he 
would, in the first instance, have formed the 
plan of a Wesley an mission there, and never 
have thought of the bishopric at all. But for 
the promotion of the blessed work of turning 
men to righteousness, which he steadily kept 
in view through life, he was ready to adopt any 
mode of Christian operation. " Abandon his 
Wesleyanism !" No, never ! The object which 
he proposed in going to India was not to pro- 
vide for his children or near relations, for he 
had none ; but to accomplish that which is the 
one design of all Wesleyan instrumentality 
whatever,^ — " raising up a spiritual church," 
"beginning or reviving a genuine work of re- 
lisrion." There is absolutely nothing in the 
letter that implies any just reflection upon Dr. 
Coke's uprightness and integrity. ' The only 
circumstance connected with it that his warm- 
est admirers can lament is, that he asked for an 
appointment which it was not probable that he 
would receive ; and the request for which 
might be turned to his disadvantage by the jea- 
lousy or the petty malice of men who could not 
sympathize with him in his high missionary 
feelings and designs. 

And now, sir, you and the Messrs. Wilber- 
force have all had your revenge upon the ?\ie- 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 177 

thodist clergyman. They have published his 
letter, the subject of which he asked his friend 
to keep concealed in his own breast ; and you 
have availed yourself of it. to assail his moral 
character. The whole case is now before the 
world, and every one may form his own judg- 
ment concerning it. I shall not be surprised if 
the least share of blame be awarded to Dr. 
Coke, and the greatest to yourself. The doc- 
tor wrote an indiscreet letter, but for an object 
that was worthy of an apostle ; and by the 
writing of it he " injured no man, he corrupted 
no man, he defrauded no man." The Messrs. 
Wilberforce have published it, but for what 
purpose is best known to themselves ; certainly 
not to prove that they excel their venerable 
father in that " delicacy" and " honour" which 
Dr. Coke so justly ascribed to him. Upon this 
document, published under circumstances of 
which few persons it is presumed can by 
possibility approve, you have assumed that 
Dr. Coke was a bad man, and have preferred 
against him charges of the foulest kind, not 
one of which you have it in your power to 
establish. In the eagerness of his desire to 
benefit the millions of India, the doctor injudi- 
ciously preferred a request which was not 
likely to be granted ; the two archdeacons 
12 



178 A LETTER TO 

have violated a trust which was confided to their 
father's " candour, delicacy, and honour ;" and 
you have broken the great law of truth and 
charity, by unjust censures both upon the 
living and the dead. I presume that the Wes- 
leyans may still respect the memory of Dr. 
Coke, without divesting themselves of the 
Christian character. 

CONCLUSION. 

I have now, sir, carefully examined what 
you have advanced against the Wesleyan body, 
in the long note which you have appended to 
your Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
and have endeavoured to meet all that you have 
there alleged, whether in the shape of fact, 
or of argument. With what success I have 
executed my task, others will judge. Hitherto 
I have merely endeavoured to repel charges ; 
but, after what has been advanced, it will not 
excite your surprise, if, in conclusion, I lay 
aside the character of defendant, and assume 
that of plaintiff. You have voluntarily taken 
upon yourself the office of a public censor, and 
have certainly shown little tenderness or for- 
bearance toward the religious body to which I 
have the happiness to belong, any more than 
toward other classes of Christian people, as 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 179 

well foreign as domestic. Of all men, there- 
fore, you cannot justly complain if that which 
is deemed blameworthy in your public conduct, 
especially in your authorship, be freely ani- 
madverted upon. I would much rather offer 
commendation than rebuke, especially to one 
who bears the title of a minister of Christ ; but 
in this case commendation would be flattery, 
and therefore a sin. 

I complain, first, that in your attempts to find 
ground of accusation against the Wesleyan 
body, you have said many things which are di- 
rectly at variance with truth. Several exam- 
ples of this have been pointed out in the pre- 
ceding pages. Whether they are accidental or 
designed, I know not ; nor is it my business to 
determine. Either way they are inexcusable, 
because correct information could have been 
readily obtained. It has been shown that some 
of your most grave and severe charges against 
the Wesleyans are utterly unfounded ; so that 
you would scarcely have departed more mani- 
festly from the truth, if you had said that Mr. 
Wesley derived his creed from the Koran, and 
that all the people to whom his name is applied 
are zealous Mohammedans. The proofs are 
before the reader ; and against a mode of writ- 
ing so unjust and unscrupulous the accused 



180 A LETTER TO 

have too much reason to remonstrate. You say, 
the Wesleyans- are in schism, and that their 
doctrines are heretical. Be it so, for the sake 
of argument. Say, if you please, that they are 
burglars and highwaymen. Still you have no 
right to impute to them tenets which not one of 
them believes, and practices which their souls 
abhor. Next to, piety to God, nothing ought to 
be more sacred than truth between man and 
man ; truth in every verbal communication, and 
in every department of social intercourse ; and 
most of all, truth in the use of the press. The 
man who publishes a fallacious and misleading 
statement, especially to the injury of the cha- 
racter of others, is answerable for all the mis- 
chief that ensues from it, not only as long as 
the book which contains it continues to circu- 
late, but as long as any one repeats the unjust 
aspersion. Whether the Wesleyan body are 
good or bad, saints or the vilest sinners, you 
have not spoken of them the thing that is right, 
because you have not spoken that which is 
true. Neither with respect to doctrine nor 
practice are they the people that you have 
described. 

I complain, secondly, of your utter disregard 
of all that the Wesleyans themselves have pub- 
lished in explanation and defence of their own 



REV. E0WARC B* PUS'EY, D.D. 181 

tenets and practiced. The substance of the 
charges which you have preferred against 
them in your Letter to the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, you had previously i unbodied in your 
Letter to the Bishop of Oxford. They were 
met and disproved in the Wesleyan-Methodist 
Magazine for January and February, 1841. Of 
what is there advanced by the accused party, 
you take not the slightest notice, but repeat 
your censures, as if they admitted of no dis- 
pute. By what " standard of morals" you thus 
act, I profess not to know. It is not the Jew- 
ish " standard ;" for " a master in Israel" 
silenced a whole sanhedrim of unrighteous 
men. by proposing the question, " Doth our law 
judge any man before it hear him, and know 
what he doeth ?" John vii, 51. That it was 
not the " standard" of pagan Rome, we have 
also direct testimony. Festus said, "It is not 
the manner of the Romans to deliver any man 
to die, before that he which is accused have 
the accusers face to face, and have license to 
answer for himself concerning the crime laid 
against him," Acts xxv, 16. Nor is it, I pre- 
sume, a " standard" that can at all comport 
win Christian truth and equity. Suppose a 
lover of strife, in perfect disregard of your 
recorded sentiments, should publicly declare 



182 A LETTER TO 

that you deny the catholic doctrine of the Holy 
Trinity. You are astounded at the charge, 
publicly and solemnly declare that it is abso- 
lutely unfounded, and refer to your printed 
works in confirmation of your testimony. Your 
accuser, bent upon the ruin of your reputation, 
publishes a series of pamphlets, each of which 
he addresses to some distinguished personage. 
He makes not the remotest reference to your 
defence of yourself, but is careful in every pub- 
lication to repeat his charge, declaring, with 
expressions of regret, that you are certainly a 
heretic. Would you consider the conduct of 
such a man justifiable upon any principle that 
Christianity recognises ? and not rather regard 
it as an outrage upon the most sacred principles 
of Christian morality ? Excuse me, sir, if I say 
that this is precisely your conduct toward the 
Wesleyan body. You accuse them of heresy. 
They remonstrate, and produce direct proof of 
the injustice of your allegations. No matter 
for this. Their remonstrances and proofs are 
nothing to you. The ruin of their character is 
the object to be accomplished. You therefore 
repeat your refuted charges in successive publi- 
cations, with undiminished pertinacity. There 
is an authority which says, " Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do unto you, even so 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 183 

do unto them." Whether or not you will observe 
this equitable precept in your future animad- 
versions upon Mr. Wesley and his people, time 
will show. Hitherto you have acted toward 
them as if no such words had been uttered, 
either by God or man. 

I complain, thirdly, that in reference to Mr. 
Wesley and the people who bear his name, 
you have assumed authority to speak with a 
confidence which is altogether unwarrantable ; 
because you cannot by possibility possess the 
knowledge, that you affect. The Wesleyans, 
as we have seen, attach immense importance to 
personal conversion, and to subsequent con- 
formity to the word and will of God. You 
profess to know all that passes in their minds 
in the entire process of their conversion and 
salvation, and resolve the whole matter into 
self-deceit in some, and hypocrisy in others. 
Dr. Coke, in all his yearnings for India, you 
are sure was a great sinner ; for he was actu- 
ated by " worldliness and ambition," and that 
" in no ordinary degree." You have, by impli- 
cation, given the same character of Mr. Wes- 
ley. Toward the close of his life, he is well 
known to have ordained several of his preach- 
ers to the full duties of the ministry ; to the ad- 
ministration of the sacraments and the pastoral 



184 A LETTER TO 

oversight of the people, as well as the public 
preaching of God's word. Yet you say, " that 
to the last he refused, in the strongest terms, 
his consent that those thus ordained should take 
upon them to administer the sacraments ; he 
felt that it exceeded his powers, and so inhibited 
it."* Solomon says, " Who can stand before 
envy?" and it may well be inquired, Who can 
stand before an opponent who writes in this 
manner ? Mr. Wesley refused his consent 
that those preachers who had not been ordained 
to this service should administer the sacraments, 
yet not for the reason which you have assigned ; 
but others of them he solemnly and expressly 
ordained to this administration, and declared to 
his brother, that he had as much right thus to 
ordain, as he had to baptize and to give the 
Lord's supper. In these deliberate, well-con- 
sidered, and solemn acts, you aver, "he felt" 
that he had not the power which he professed 
to exercise. If this be true, he stands convicted 
of playing the hypocrite in the house of God, 
in some of the most sacred and momentous acts 
of his eventful life ; as you, in effect, declare 
that Dr. Coke did, and that a large portion of 
the Wesleyan societies have done, and do at 
this day. 

* Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, p. 151. Fourth edition. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 185 

Now, sir, the question is not what God in 
his righteous judgment may in the last great 
day declare Mr. Wesley, Dr. Coke, and other 
Methodists, to have been ; but how do you 
know what passed in their hearts, so as to jus- 
tify you in speaking of them in the terms which 
you have employed ? You were not present 
when Mr. Wesley performed his ordinations ; 
and if you had been, you could only have wit- 
nessed the outward act. When he uttered the 
words, " Take thou authority to preach the 
word of God, and to administer the holy sacra- 
ments in the congregation ;" and when he said, 
" Be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of 
God, and of his holy sacraments ;" how do you 
know that " he felt" it> " exceeded his powers" 
to convey any such " authority ;" and that he 
was therefore condemned in his own con- 
science? Whether he was or was not the 
self-convicted and presumptuous man that your 
statements assume him to be, " the day will 
declare ;" " for it shall be revealed by fire, and 
the fire will try every man's work, of what sort 
it is." But in the mean while God only knows 
what passes in the hearts of his creatures. 
The manner therefore in which you have 
charged the most hateful sin of hypocrisy upon 
your " fellow-servants" is no more consistent 



186 A LETTER TO 

with strict truth, than it is with Christian meek- 
ness and charity. You have not the means of 
knowledge. It is not your prerogative, but that 
of God, to " judge the secrets of men's hearts." 
I complain, fourthly, that your attack upon 
the Wesleyan body is inconsistent, and has 
every appearance of party objects. You pro- 
fess great zeal against Antinomianism, which 
is acknowledged to be an evil of frightful mag- 
nitude wherever it exists. Such zeal, there- 
fore, if sincere, is highly commendable. I say, 
if sincere ; for if it express itself in language 
of unmeasured censure against the evil in some 
quarters, and palliate or justify the same evil in 
others ; if it charge the evil upon one body of 
Christians who are comparatively innocent, and 
caress another that is openly guilty ; it is not 
sincere, and is rather to be frowned down as a 
meddling impertinence than as an honourable 
virtue. Now, sir, the most superficial observer 
must see that Antinomianism is not confined to 
any one set of doctrinal propositions, but is a 
disease of human nature to which every com- 
munity is liable, and against which all ought to 
guard. It has indeed shown itself among those 
who have held the evangelical doctrine of sal- 
vation by grace, through faith in the blood of 
Christ ; but it has far oftener appeared among 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 187 

the clamourers for religious pomp and cere- 
mony, the men who can only admire religion 
when it is adorned with gold lace and ostrich 
feathers. The most notorious Antinomians of 
ancient times were the Jewish Pharisees, who 
" made long prayers," where they could "be 
seen of men," and were scrupulously exact in 
paying " tithe of mint, anise, and cummin," and 
in " making broad their phylacteries ;" but in 
their practice " devoured widows' houses," 
made void the commandment of God, and set 
aside justice, mercy, and fidelity. Here was 
Antinomianism, bold and impudent, in the very 
" straitest sect" of the Jews' religion. 

Next to them the Church of Rome is the 
most flagrant offender in this respect. Her 
ceremonial is pompous beyond all example 
among Christians, and her rites are numerous 
and minute. The additions which she has 
made to the simple religion of the Lord Jesus, 
time would fail one to mention ; and to all 
these she has given the name of piety. But 
what are her morals ? Let the turbulence of 
Ireland, and the infidelity, the sabbath desecra- 
tion, and the nameless vices of France and of 
ihe Italian states declare. A man may be a 
recognised Romanist without either Christian 
godliness or moral honesty. How many adhe- 



188 A LETTER TO 

rents of the Papacy are there at this day, espe- 
cially in Ireland and Italy, who observe saints' 
days, and profane the sabbath ; who count their 
beads, practise all the rites of the church, 
carefully avoid all that would violate what is 
called " catholic unity," and would murder 
almost any man for half-a-crown ! 

To come somewhat nearer home : within the 
last few years a body of men have risen up in 
the Protestant church of this country, who call 
themselves Anglo-Catholics. Their doctrine, 
particularly on the vital question of man's justi- 
fication before God, when stripped of the verbi- 
age in which they have seen good to envelop it, 
is precisely that of the Council of Trent, and 
therefore at variance with the Articles and Ho- 
milies of their own Church, which they have 
severally subscribed. The especial attention 
of these men has been directed to the circum- 
stantials of religion. They have strenuously 
recommended obsolete ceremonies in the pub- 
lic worship of God, and in several instances 
have actually introduced them ; for which they 
have been rebuked by their ecclesiastical supe- 
riors : and, indeed, nearly the whole of the 
bishops have, with various degrees of severity, 
expressed their disapprobation of the principles 
and conduct of the party. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 189 

That these men, notwithstanding their pro- 
fessions of strictness and severity of manners, 
are not free from the leaven of Antinomianism, 
is, I think, manifest. I pass over the bitter 
and persecuting spirit which not a few of them 
have betrayed. Much they say on the subject 
of " catholicity," but certainly catlwlic love is no 
part of their system ; for they have shown the 
deepest hostility toward nearly all the church- 
es of Protestant Christendom, and have treated 
even the martyred reformers with contumely. 
The direct effect of their proceedings has been 
to create a feeling in favour of the Church of 
Rome ; and some persons who entertain the 
views of the party, it seems, were known to be 
dissatisfied with their own position as Protestants, 
and began to entertain serious thoughts of con- 
necting themselves with the Papal hierarchy. 
To satisfy the minds of these persons, the 
" Tract for the Times," numbered ninety, was 
published. It is intended to show that the Ar- 
ticles of the Church of England, although deci- 
dedly opposed to the tenets of Rome, may 
nevertheless be explained so as not very mate- 
rially to differ from the Papal creed. Men, 
therefore, who dissent from the Articles of the 
English Church, need not forsake her com- 
munion on that account, but should rather inter- 



190 A LETTER TO 

pret those Articles in accordance with their 
own views. According to this tract, a young 
man who is a Romanist at heart may subscribe 
the formularies of the Church of England, 
without believing them, and thus enter upon the 
ministry in her with a lie in his mouth. If 
such conduct be justifiable when a man is ap- 
pointed to the most sacred of all offices, that of 
a Christian minister, whose business it is to 
guide the people in the way of truth and right- 
eousness, it cannot be seriously wrong with 
respect to offices of a less sacred nature. Sup- 
pose then that ministers of state, senators, 
judges, and military and naval commanders, 
were to act in this manner, taking their respec- 
tive oaths of office with mental reservation, and 
even in a sense directly opposite to the proper 
meaning of the words ; and that the same 
course were followed in all commercial transac- 
tions, and in all private contracts and engage- 
ments ; what must be the consequence, but an 
abandonment of all confidence, and the disrup- 
tion of society? Principles more immoral in 
their tendency than those which tract ninety 
imbodies were perhaps never put forth through 
the medium of the British press ; yet that pub- 
lication, with all its flagrant dishonesty, is still 
allowed to circulate, and the parties whose 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 191 

organ it is have the face to appear as public 
reformers ! O for an English Pascal, who by a 
series of " Provincial Letters, " or in any other 
way, should exhibit these principles in all their 
deformity, and preserve the mind of Protestant 
England from the bane of such Jesuitical 
morality ! 

If a man submit to inconvenience and suffer- 
ing, rather than do a thing which he considers 
sinful and dishonourable, he is generally regard- 
ed with respect, even when he is thought to be 
mistaken. He may be in error, and even be- 
tray weakness of intellect ; but he proves him- 
self to be honest, and therefore trust-worthy. 
Some of the Anglo-Catholic clergy have re- 
signed their Protestant character, and gone over 
to the Church of Rome ; but the greater part of 
them remain in the established Church. Their 
doctrine is declared by the prelates to be oppos- 
ed to the formularies which they have subscrib- 
ed ; and some of themselves have strongly cen- 
sured the Book of Common-prayer, which they 
daily use, and declared their decided preference 
of Popish forms of divine worship. One of 
them has described himself and his brethren in 
the use of the English Liturgy, as " working in 
chains." And yet, with these views and predi- 
lections, they eat the bread of the Church 



192 A LETTER TO 

from whose doctrine they dissent, and whose 
services they alternately praise and vilify. 
What the civil courts think of such conduct 
may be easily learned from their decisions in 
the case of Lady Hewley's charity. If ortho- 
dox endowments ought not to be applied to the 
support of Socinian error, neither ought Pro- 
testant endowments to be applied to the sup- 
port of Popery, in any of its modifications. 
Yet here are men declaiming against Protest- 
antism, and renouncing its very name, while 
they pocket the money which was intended to 
be appropriated to the defence of its doctrines, 
and the performance of its rites ! 

Now, sir, I appeal to you as a Christian mi- 
nister, and a man that fears God, whether such 
moral principles and such conduct are consist- 
ent with the holiness of the gospel ? You pro- 
fess to be greatly concerned on account, of the 
Antinomianism of the Wesleyan body, and, in 
your eagerness to substantiate the charge 
against them, you have invented for them a 
creed, and affected to trace the development 
of it in sins of which the accused are not guilty. 
But can you discern nothing of this evil in the 
Church of Rome, and in the party whose say- 
ings and doings have called forth so many 
episcopal admonitions ? If you really have a 






REV. EDWARD B. PUSEV, D. D. 193 

godly jealousy of Antinomianism, and not a mere 
feeling of dislike for the Wesleyans, — instead 
of teaching whining sentimentalists to say, 

"Thou dost soothe the heart, thou Church of Rome," 
— warn that corrupt community of the guilt and 
danger of tolerating in her children the gross 
immoralities by which immense numbers of 
them in all parts of the world are distinguished. 
Tell her that, however she may " soothe" the 
consciences of bad men by her masses, indul- 
gences, and absolutions, " the wicked shall be 
turned into hell, with all the nations that forget 
God." Reprove the Anglo-Catholics for send- 
ing forth the tract number ninety, which has 
been an occasion of so much public scandal ; 
exhort them to suppress it without delay ; and 
to repent before both God and man that they 
ever sanctioned the immoral principles which 
it contains. If they hesitate, quote the follow- 
ing scriptures to them, and say that, whatever 
they may find in " tradition" of a contrary kind, 
it ought to be rejected with abhorrence : — 
" Wherefore putting away lying, speak every 
man truth with his neighbour: for we are 
members one of another," Eph. iv, 25. " Lie 
not one to another, seeing ye have put off the 
old man with his deeds," Col. iii, 9. Tell 
these misguided men, that their continuance in 
13 



194 A LETTER TO 

a Protestant church, while they propagate the 
doctrines of Papal Rome, is at variance with 
every principle of justice, truth, and honour ; 
and that their spirit of bitter exclusiveness is 
perfectly alien from the charity of the gospel, 
" without which all their doings are" confessed 
to be " nothing worth." Sound an alarm in the 
ears of the Anglo-Catholics for having so far 
identified themselves with the great apostacy, 
as to have openly defended one of its worst 
characteristics, that of " speaking lies in hy- 
pocrisy," 1 Tim. iv r 2. If you thus oppose 
Antinomianism wherever it is seen to exist, 
your reproofs addressed to the Wesleyans will 
be the more effective ; because it will be seen 
that they proceed not from personal antipathy, 
but from a righteous detestation of sin. But if 
you persist in charging the Wesleyan body 
with evils which either do not exist among 
them at all, or exist to a very limited extent, and 
are constantly reproved and condemned, while 
you maintain a complete silence concerning 
still greater evils which meet you at every step, 
it is easy to see that your rebukes are rather the 
ebullitions of party prejudice, than the honest 
outbreaks of godly zeal ; and therefore are 
more likely to provoke recrimination than to 
lead to repentance and amendment. 



RHV. EDWARD H. PUSETT, D.D. 195 

I have to complain, fifthly, that in attacking 
Wesleyanism, you have thrown discredit upon 
Christian godliness as described in the New 
Testament. Every reflection that you have 
cast upon religion as taught by Mr. Wesley and 
his people, applies with equal force to personal 
Christianity as taught by our blessed Lord and 
his apostles. An argument in proof of the di- 
vine authority of the gospel has often been 
drawn from the effects which were produced by 
the preaching of it in the primitive times. Large 
numbers of people who had long been addicted to 
the worst habits, were not only reformed, but en- 
tirely changed in their spirit and temper, through 
the apostolic ministry. An ample account of 
the people who were thus converted is given 
by the New Testament writers. They are 
everywhere described as believers in Christ ; 
and, as such, they are declared to be justified, 
received into the favour of God, and adopted 
into his family. They are all spoken of as 
having received the Holy Spirit, so as to live 
under his influence, and to be comforted, quick- 
ened, regenerated, and sanctified by him ; to 
live in habits of devotion, of holy love and obe- 
dience. Many of the people of whom these 
things are said had formerly been profligate and 
polluted heathens. These are the facts. How 



196 A LETTER TO 

are they to be accounted for ? An unbeliever 
may easily borrow your theory, and say that 
these people were taught to look for certain 
" feelings" in their minds ; that they set them- 
selves to produce those " feelings," w T hich un- 
happily men " have the power in a great mea- 
sure to do ;" and when these feelings did not 
come, and the people were unsuccessful in 
their attempts to call them forth, they had no- 
thing to do but to " invent them." So that by 
means of self-deceit and hypocrisy they might 
easily be what they called justified, regenerated, 
and made happy. Such is the theory which 
satisfies you with regard to " Wesleyanism," 
and may satisfy an infidel with regard to Chris- 
tianity, as it is described in the Epistles of St. 
Paul, St. Peter, and St. John. But with such 
a theory no man can be satisfied who duly 
considers the subject. 

It is true that repentance is a " feeling," or 
rather, a complication of " feelings ;" but it is 
something more. It is such a conviction of 
sin as produces godly sorrow, deep humiliation 
and shame before God ; a renunciation of the 
world and sin ; earnest desires to regain the 
favour and image of God ; and a turning to him 
in confession, deprecation, and prayer. Of that 
conviction the Holy Spirit is the direct author; 



REV* EDWARD B. PU8EY, D. D. 197 

and the exercise of repentance is enjoined upon 
all men, everywhere ; since without it they 
must perish for ever. 

Faith in Christ is a " feeling ;" but it is 
something more. It is that penitent trust in 
him, as the Mediator between God and man, 
by which the benefits of his redemption are ob- 
tained. According to the provisions of the 
evangelical covenant, men are justified by 
faith ; they are adopted into the family of God 
by faith ; they receive the promised gift of the 
Spirit by faith ; they live by faith ; they walk 
by faith ; they are saved by faith. 

Spiritual peace and joy are " feelings ;" but 
they are something more. They are the gra- 
cious communications of the Holy Spirit, vouch- 
safed to those whom he acknowledges and 
" seals" as the children of God. They are the 
direct effect of that witness which he bears 
with their spirits that they are " accepted in 
the Beloved." Of such persons it is said that 
their " hearts and minds are kept by the peace 
of God, which passeth all understanding ;" and 
that " the joy of the Lord is their strength." 

Love to God is a " feeling ;" but it is some- 
thing more. It is conformity to " the first and 
great commandment," the supreme law of earth 
and heaven. It is the principle of holiness, 



198 A LETTER TO 

and of all acceptable obedience. To bring 
mankind to the possession and exercise of this 
love, God has himself promised to " circumcise 
their hearts ;" so that " love is of God." Where 
it reigns^ there is heaven. In the absence of 
it, even existence is misery. Hence the force 
of Joshua's admonition : " Take good heed 
therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the 
Lord your God." 

The fear of God is a "feeling;" hut it is 
something more. It is the principle by which 
good men are restrained from sin, and from all 
irreverent and unbecoming familiarity with 
God. Under its influence they study in all 
things to please him, and to preserve a con- 
science pure and upright. 

Zeal for God is a " feeling ;" but it is some- 
thing more. It is the pure flame of love, ex- 
pressing itself in earnest desires for the spread 
of God's truth and ordinances, and the exten- 
sion of his dominion ; and that the glory which 
is due to his name may be given to him by all 
creatures upon earth, as well as by all in 
heaven. 

Delight in religious duties, such as public 
and secret worship, receiving the Lord's sup- 
per, reading the Holy Scriptures, and moral 
obedience, is a " feeling ;" but it is something 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 199 

more. It is a direct effect of that momentous 
change which takes place in the heart when a 
man is " born from above ;" and is therefore a 
sign of that new nature which all must possess, 
before they can either serve God acceptably in 
this world, or enter into heaven in the next. 

Contentment with our providential lot, and 
patience in affliction, are " feelings ;" but they 
are something more. They are a meek and 
dutiful submission to the will of our heavenly 
Father, who chooses our inheritance for us, 
and who causes " all things to work together 
for good to them that love him. 1 ' 

Brotherly love is a " feeling ;" but it is some- 
thing more. It springs from the love of God, 
is expressly enjoined by Jesus Christ, and is 
the mark and badge of his true disciples. By 
this they are induced to seek each other's so- 
ciety, to bear one another's burdens, and in 
every possible way to promote each other's 
benefit. Without this men are no more in 
the sight of God than u sounding brass, and a 
tinkling cymbal." They are therefore " taught 
of Him to love one another." 

Love to all mankind is a " feeling ;" but it 
is something more. It is enjoined by " the 
second" commandment of God, which is "like 
unto the first," both in its nature and obligations. 



200 A LETTER TO 

By this powerful " feeling" good men are im- 
pelled to forgive injuries, to return blessing for 
cursing, to pray for their persecutors, to over- 
come evil by acts of pure kindness, to reprove 
sin, to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, enter- 
tain strangers, visit the sick, relieve the widow 
and the fatherless, and do good to all. 

Hope of heaven is a "feeling;" but it is 
something more. It is an earnest expectation 
of perfect and endless happiness in the enjoy- 
ment of God ; and supplies the most powerful 
motives to personal holiness and perseverance 
in the way of righteousness. " For every one 
that hath his hope in Him purifieth himself 
even as He is pure." Animated by this hope, 
" the noble army of martyrs" passed with un- 
shrinking fidelity through the fiery conflict, and 
thus gained the promised crown. 

These, sir, are the " feelings" which the Wes- 
leyans are taught to " look for," and even to ask 
in prayer from the God of all grace ; because 
he only can impart them. From the pulpit of 
every Wesleyan chapel, in every class-meeting 
and love-feast, they are pressed upon the peo- 
ple as constituting the very substance of true 
religion. Those persons are the most esteem- 
ed who attain to the greatest proficiency in 



REV. EDWARD B. PtJSEY, D. D. 201 

these " feelings," at the same time exhibiting the 
genuine effects of them in their lives. Not- 
withstanding the strong and unqualified terms 
in which you have expressed yourself on the 
subject, I trust it is not your intention absolute- 
ly to condemn religious " feeling," in this sense ; 
but whether you do or not, with the Holy 
Scriptures in their hands, and the testimony of 
ten thousand witnesses before them, the Wes- 
leyans are not likely to swerve from the doc- 
trine which they have received. 

You say that they and you preach two dif- 
ferent gospels. This is very manifest ; and it 
requires no extraordinary spirit of discernment 
to determine which party adheres the most 
closely to " the glorious gospel of the blessed 
God," which was committed to the trust of the 
apostles, and which they have imbodied in their 
writings. Your theory, as we have seen, is 
directly at variance with the general tenor of 
the New Testament. The Wesleyans have 
been taught by the revered founder of their 
societies, to be " men of one book ;" and to 
teach nothing as binding upon the consciences 
of mankind but what is clearly taught in the 
inspired records. Should an angel from heaven 
bring them any doctrine which either contra- 



202 A LETTER TO 

diets the New Testament, or professes to sup- 
ply its alleged deficiencies, they would spurn 
his message as unauthorized and apocryphal. 
If you preach any other gospel, I trust you have 
duly weighed the consequences of propagating 
it, in opposition to that which bears the direct 
marks of divine authority. 

Through good report, and through evil report, 
the Wesleyans have hitherto persevered, bear- 
ing their honest testimony in favour of inward 
religion, the kingdom of God in the heart, mani- 
festing itself in every form of piety and moral 
goodness. What they contend for is not mat- 
ter of mere opinion, and of outward form, (the 
importance of which they are, however, ready 
to acknowledge,) but solid virtue, faith in 
Christ, the love of God and man, spiritual wor- 
ship, holiness and benevolence, an exemplary 
discharge of all the duties of life, connected 
with peace and joy, and the hope of future 
glory. For religion in its Scriptural simplicity, 
power, and life, they will not cease to contend, 
leaving all mere ceremonies of human inven- 
tion, whether derived from the Nicene Church, 
or the church of the scribes and Pharisees, to 
those who admire them. 

Various forms of evil exist at present in this 



REV. EDWARD B. PlSEY, D.D. 203 

country, and are in active operation ; such as 
infidelity in the character of atheism, and anar- 
chy wild and fierce, menacing every public and 
private interest. Immense multitudes of the 
people are still ignorant and wicked ; and not 
a few of the children of the poor, if we may 
judge from parliamentary documents, are scarce- 
ly aware that there is a God, a future state, or 
any difference between moral right and wrong. 
Wesleyanism has laboured for many years, ac- 
cording to its means, to counteract these evils, 
and with most encouraging success, as is known 
to every candid observer in the land. A writer 
in the last number of the Quarterly Review 
confesses, that the established Church has done 
nothing for the colliers and miners. In a col- 
lier village, containing a population of five thou- 
sand souls, it is said that there are " thirty beer 
shops, without a church or chapel, save the 
meeting-house of the indefatigable Wesley an, 
who, let it be noted, has hitherto been, in many 
of these regions, the only Protestant missionary. 
1 The Methodists,' says Mr. Leifchild, ' have 
chiefly, and, in several instances, exclusively 
undertaken the charge of providing religious 
instruction in the collieries. Considerable 
moral amelioration has ensued through their 



204 A LETTER TO 

agency, for which they merit, and have receiv- 
ed from nearly all parties their meed of praise.' " 
(Report on Northumberland and North Durham, 
Appendix i, 533.) The reviewer adds,." Our 
Protestant system has ever been defective in 
its machinery, as well as curtailed in its re- 
sources ; and, moreover, the upper classes of 
Englishmen, speaking generally, have scarcely 
yet learned to be the companions of the poorer 
orders of society, however meritorious their 
claims as distributors of charity. These reports 
prove that the Wesleyan has followed them in 
every village, and gone from cottage to cottage, 
to leave, in person, his tracts and his discipline. 
Hence the English colliers, where they have 
any religion at all, are Methodists.* 4 * 

It is also reported by Mr. Leifchild, that the 
Wesleyan Methodists have in one district built, 
at a cost of twenty-nine thousand pounds, forty 
chapels, containing about fifteen thousand sit- 
tings ; and that in these chapels are taught up- 
ward of four thousand Sunday-school scholars. 
All these buildings Mr. Leifchild found to be 
situated within about one mile of Newcas- 
tle, on each side of the river Tyne ; and he 
adds, that there are many similar erections in 

* Quarterly Review, Number cxxxix, p. 167. 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSEY, D. D. 205 

the mining districts of Northumberland and 
Durham.* 

These are but a specimen of the efforts 
which have been made by these people for the 
spiritual good of mankind, both at home and 
abroad. Corrupt in mind and heart as you de- 
clare them to be, the fact is, that, having them- 
selves experienced the reality and blessedness 
of inward religion, they are anxious that all the 
world should share with them in its benefits. 
Hence their exertions in the British islands, 
and in the dark and wretched nations of the hea- 
then world. " For to their power, T bear record, 
yea, and beyond their power they were willing 
of themselves" to build schools and chapels, 
to support, a laborious itinerant ministry, to 
preach in the open air, and in private houses, 
as well as to send missionaries to far distant 
lands, beyond civilization and the protection of 
law, for the one object of turning men to Christ 
as their Saviour. With what success they 
have laboured, by the blessing of God, millions 
have declared both in life and death, and still 
declare. 

Yet does it appear that, in the estimation of 
those clergymen who entertain your views of 
* Parliamentary Evidence, detail No. 643, p. 710. 



206 A LETTER TO 

religion, Wesleyanism itself is one of the great- 
est of all evils : and hence their ceaseless and 
most strenuous efforts are at this day directed to 
arrest its progress, and, if possible, to effect its 
extermination. Tracts in great numbers are 
printed in Oxford, London, Leeds, and other 
places, and are carried from house to house 
through the towns and villages, containing state- 
ments against Mr. Wesley and his people, 
which are drawn up with little regard for truth, 
and still less for charity. Many persons sus- 
pect that these publications are intended to ex- 
asperate the Wesleyan societies against the 
Church of England, and thus weaken the Pro- 
testant interest ; that so the Church of Rome 
may regain her lost ascendency. If there be 
such a design, I pray God to " turn the counsel 
of Ahithophel into foolishness." This fact, 
however, is undeniable, that most of the tracts 
to which reference has just been made, imbody 
precisely the same principles as do those which 
are circulated against Wesleyanism by the 
" Catholic Institute," of which Daniel O'Con- 
nell and his friends are the most active members. 
To whatever trials it may please God, in the 
righteous dispensations of his providence, to 
subject the Protestants of Great Britain, my 



REV. EDWARD B. PUSHY, D. D. 207 

hope is, that the Wesleyan societies will reso- 
lutely choose rather to follow the martyred re- 
formers through the flames of Smithfield to 
paradise, than abandon the blessed gospel of 
the Son of God for the miserable superstition 
and the blasphemies of the man of sin. Their 
great calling is to bear testimony to this vital 
truth, that " circumcision is nothing, and un- 
circumcision is nothing, but keeping the com- 
mandments of God," under the influence of 
" faith which worketh by love." In the en- 
forcement of the great verities of Christianity 
they know no " reserve ;" but endeavour, " by 
manifestation of the truth to commend themselves 
to every man's conscience in the sight of God." 
Thus the venerable Charles Weslev sung, — 

Thy power and saving truth to show, 
A warfare at thy charge I go, 

Strong in the Lord, and thy great might, 
Gladly take up thy hallow'd cross ; 
And suffering all things for thy cause, 

Beneath thy bloody banner fight. 
A spectacle to fiends and men, 
To all their fierce or cool disdain, 

With calmest pity I submit : 
Determined naught to know beside 
My Jesus and him crucified, 

I tread the world beneath mv feet. 



208 LETTER TO REV. E. B. PUSEY, D. D. 

For this alone I live below, 
The power of godliness to show, 

The wonders wrought by Jesu's name ; 
O that I might but faithful prove ; 
Witness to all thy pardoning love, 

And point them to the atoning Lamb ! 
Let me to every creature cry, 
The poor and rich, the low and high, 

" Believe, and feel thy sins forgiven ! 
Damn'd till by Jesus saved thou art ! 
Till Jesu's blood hath washed thy heart, 

Thou canst not find the gate of heaven !" 

I am, sir, your obedient servant. 

London, August 4, 1842. 



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